TRIGUN: MOON CHILD
by ArkNorth
Summary: POST ANIME ¤ Earth has Arrived! Are Vash and Knives ready to learn the truth? Born and raised on the Fifth Moon, a security officer from SEEDS is determined to find out ¤ Originally posted Spring 2003
1. Prelude One ¤ History's Observations

**A Note about this series of stories we are about to trek upon:**

This story was originally published here on FFN back in the fall/winter of 2003. At the time it garnered rave reviews and many fans, but was eventually removed after it had been selected for attack by a series of canon-zealots who insisted that their take on Nightow's creation was the only way, and that my use of many OCs was an apparent attempt at Mary/GarySue-itis. Wow… okay, if that's what they want to think, so be it for them then.

What this is was my take on the events after the Anime series of what would happen if Earth finally arrived. It was not related to the Manga, though from what I'm reading of the now completed series, I came damn near close. My storyline does include references to other Manga/Anime series, as I like to think of the multiverse being able to touch others from time to time. Proper credit to those storylines are given at the end of the chapters. It starts off though with three prelude stories – **History's Observations**, which starts the plot of explaining to Vash and a healing Knives that Earth has indeed arrived, and will be making a landing soon. **The Smoking Angel** explains why a certain character is back (if you can't figure it out by the title who I'm referring to, then you need to see the Anime again!). The third story, **Motor City Blues**, sets up my take on the central characters of my story, the Plants, and where they came from. This was written prior to Nightow's explanation in the Manga, so obviously this will not be to proper Manga canon, but could still be warped and twisted into the Anime's universe. One way or the other, please know that I know that it ISN'T CANON. Yeesh!

With that, I set this story free once again. Enjoy!

R.A. Stott – 05/2007

NOTE - June 2010 - I've had to re-edit the stories again due to an FFN upgrade (if you want to call it that) that removed some story bridges (lines) - without them, the story jumps at points without reason - THANKS FFN! ...sigh!

**Prelude One**

T R I G U N :**  
MOON CHILD**

**History's Observations**

**By R. A. Stott**

With References to "The Angel and the Warrior" By S. E. Nordwall

Used with permission

He landed his small ship in the soft sand near an outcropping of rock the local's called Sutter's Mesa out on the fringes of the Promontory Flats. He looked to his left at a small shack that was at the bottom of the cliff nestled in a patch of shrubs. He shrugged to himself and climbed out of the cockpit and onto the wing. He looked up at the twin suns that were blazing over his head. It was bad enough that they were there, it was worse that his fur wasn't helping things. He scratched an itch and grunted.

Remembering his orders, he reached back into the cabin of his ship. He slung a necklace over his head and examined the large pendant that hung from the end of it. "GENUINE DOORKNOB" was written along its door handle shaped side.

"Have this on you, and have it turned on," was his direct orders from his new Captain, and he wasn't going to forget it. The mental shielding it provided was an imperative for this new mission. He gave the device a twist. The two beeps it made as he dropped it down inside his uniform let him know that it was operational. He then reached into the ship and pulled out his gun and a pouch. He holstered the gun to his side and jumped down to the ground. He looked at the shack again.

It was a modest little house – maybe 2 or 3 rooms in size – no power to be seen, save a rickety windmill that had been made from salvaged parts of what looked to him to have been a turbine. To one side of the yard the shack stood in was an outhouse - to the other was a small corral and barn-like shed which penned in a rather large kiwi-like creature that was quite larger than he was. He felt an urge not to mess with this critter.

He looked at the house again. As he got closer, he noticed something over the door.

"R E M," he said to himself and smiled. They had been made from some heat shield tiles, skillfully chipped to form the letters. He nodded his approval and stepped onto the porch. He gave the screen door three taps and waited.

"We really don't want any visitors!" a cheery voice said from inside the house.

"I need to speak to you, Mr. Saverem," his gravelly voice said back to the cheery one. It must have done the trick, since the door swung open and a tall man dressed mostly in black stepped out to see why he had been called that name. But it was the tall man who was shocked at what he saw – when he finally looked down.

"You're… you're not human!" he queried.

The Tomassamassa planted his fists on his hips. "No, really?" he chided back, showing his row of cat-like fangs. He looked like a small white tiger with a beard that someone had stuffed into a uniform and gave a ray gun to. He pulled out a rod and waved it in front of the man and looked at a small ball on the palm end. He nodded and looked up at the man. "Neither are you… or your friend inside." He looked at the readings again. "Well, mostly…" he added. "My name is Kinza, Elb Kinza, and I've been sent by my Captain to see how you're doing, Mr. Vash the Stampede, AKA Eriks Saverem."

"Who is it, brother?" a voice inside the shack grumbled. Kinza craned his neck to see around the shocked man before him. There he saw another man haphazardly seated in a rocking chair glowering back at him.

"Ah, yes… Millions Knives," Kinza said, again looking at his probe. "As we suspected… you got him in the four corners – the points in your bodies where your energy transmits the most, and without a Plant's Containment Vessel or a Regen Unit to regenerate in, he's become…" He glanced at his probe again. "…nearly harmless," he finished.

The word 'nearly' made Vash look back at his brother. Knives was grimacing a bit from the wounds that had been taped up. But they still oozed some crimson around the wrapping seams. Vash stepped out onto the porch and leaned over to whisper to the small officer before him. "Don't you mean harmless – harmless? I was rather accurate when I did my – umm – you know…"

"When you shot him?" Kinza bluntly asked. He shook his head, and then placed his finger to his forehead and made a 'bang' movement. "You would have had to have placed one here as well, but that would have contradicted the old girl's teachings now wouldn't it?" he noted as he gestured to the name over the doorway. Vash looked at the letters and nodded.

"I've come to grips with the teachings of Rem – I've grown up I guess," the ex-gunman said. "You knew Rem?"

Kinza nodded. "In a way, indirectly – she was part of my observation duties - Our mission is to document the histories of planets and peoples, though in the case of the SEEDS Project, we're just now being allowed to make our first contacts… umm, correction, first OFFICIAL contacts, now that Four hundred years have passed."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," the voice from inside the house barked. "What do you mean four hundred years? Shouldn't it only be two hundred fifty or sixty years?"

Knives could see the large furry ears shake no. "Don't forget space and time, gentlemen," Kinza noted. "The SEEDS ships were traveling at sub-light speeds – approximately point nine of light speed. What were only eighty-two years to the SEEDS crews and one hundred fifty years to local time after that was many more years back on Earth." Kinza looked in through the screen door at the wide eyed expression being given him. "This is also why this mission is so different than the ones we normally do," he continued. "Normally, we'd observe, record, and move on using our 'out of time' systems that allows us to gather our information rapidly. But in the case of this mission… the observation of the Project SEEDS operation… we were forced to do this in REAL time…"

Now Vash's eyes were wide open. "Real time? Why is that? What do you mean?"

Kinza nodded towards the door. "What was that you said a hundred fifty years ago, Knives? Humanity's attempt to push towards the stars was pathetic? Well, I hate to be the barer of bad news but that's old news, and was so even back then."

* * *

"Who is this World Federation, and of what right have they to peek down on us like bugs under a microscope?" Knives snarled.

Kinza held his hands up to settle the man down. He picked up the coffee mug that Vash had offered him as they sat around a table in the kitchen area of the shack.

"Okay, first of all, remember why SEEDS was launched in the first place."

Vash nodded. "The Earth was dying – the world was no longer able to support itself."

"Correct," Kinza agreed. "So mankind did what mankind does best – they did irrational things." Knives smiled with that remark. Vash noticed but ignored it.

Kinza cleared his throat. "Mankind decided that if the Earth wasn't able to support them anymore, then lets build fleets of ships, put our people on board and launch them off on a journey of discovery!" Kinza noticed that his audience was looking at him a bit peculiarly. He cleared his throat again.

"Earth has only one moon. Did you know that?" he pressed on. Both men shook their heads no. "They nearly took one third of that rock's mass to build all ten of the exodus fleets that left the planet, and that still doesn't include the smaller independents that went on their own."

"TEN!" Knives shouted.

Kinza smirked. "Yea, if you thought you were going to stop humanity's venture into space by just knocking out the SEEDS ships, you were wrong, big time. SEEDS might have been one of the first, but it certainly wasn't the last."

Vash sat back in his chair smiling, while Knives planted his head in his hands and rocked in his seat.

"It's like a plague!" he mumbled. "The human pestilence is now everywhere!"

Kinza cocked his head and nodded. "I can't argue with you there. That's pretty much how it occurs naturally. My own race did pretty much the same thing, though not on a scale like the humans. And WHY only one of these ten fleets headed for the nearest planets to Earth around Alpha Centauri is anyone's guess. SEEDS headed out to the moon, took a left and headed for the Megellenic Cloud…" Kinza had been using his paw as a model for a SEEDS ship, twisting it about for effect. He shook his head and picked up his cup to take another swig of coffee while still trying to figure that move out.

"Now here's the odd part… BECAUSE of the exodus, something happened back on Earth that wasn't expected by all those leaving the planet. Fewer people meant fewer problems. There were fewer wars. There was less hostility. Mankind starts to understand itself better. Science takes a new direction. Humans start taking care of their planet again after one last big skirmish that finally unites the world. And with that you finally get a World Federation that uses the United Nations as its cornerstone. Technology swings away from biological power sources to that of a more potent energy – pseudo-matter and anti-matter engines. Suddenly, ships are capable of speeds faster than light, which brings us to our current problem."

Both Vash and Knives watched Kinza pick up his mug again and sip his coffee. "Which is?" they chorused.

Kinza put the cup down and looked at them both. "These new ships were actually passing the sleeper fleets. They literally can go ahead and beat the sleepers to there destinations and report back the Earth."

Knives' jaw nearly hit the table. "How… how long has that been able to be done?" he whispered.

Kinza shook his head. "That I'm not sure of, but what I do know is a World Federation ship spotted the SEEDS fleet ten years before it landed here."

Now both men's jaws lay slack. "Then why didn't this World Federation ship STOP them?" Vash finally asked in bewilderment.

"At the time, there was a new non-interference rule," Kinza replied. "Unless the ships were TOTALLY automated - of which the SEEDS fleet never was - the orders were to sit back and observe only, hence the missions of the history and observation fleets. Seven of the other fleets were automated, and again, many of the independents were as well. Automated ships tended to not be so reliable, so they needed to be stopped or redirected before they did something nasty to themselves. So many of them were diverted to new homes on better planets, or returned to the Earth sphere. That was where many of the Martian bases started from for example. But the SEEDS fleet, with their rotating sleeper systems, was not allowed to be contacted directly."

Knives started to pound the table with his fist as he laid his head on it. Kinza quickly picked up his dancing coffee cup before it dropped on the floor like Vash's did.

"NO! NO! THIS CAN'T BE!" he yelled. "HUMANITY HAS TO BE STOPPED!"

"Hey, be careful there Knives!" Vash warned. "You'll reopen your wounds again!"

Sure enough, his brother was clutching his right shoulder as the bandage started to turn a brighter red than before. As he sat and swore, he felt a large furry hand touch his shoulder.

"Okay, let's see that wound," Kinza said as he opened the small kit pouch he had slung under his arm.

"I don't want…" Knives started, but stopped as the pain suddenly vanished. He looked at the Tomassamassa. He had pointed some device at the bandages and began moving it about.

"What you want is none of my concern, sir," Kinza grumbled. "That you are currently my patient is though, so if you'll do me the service, kindly keep quiet while I use this wound healer on you."

"Some of our illustrious lost technology?" Knives asked with a sarcastic laugh.

"No, you didn't have this back then," Kinza noted as he moved to the back side of the wound. "You guys had some strange nano-bot technology that gives me the willies. Umm… nice clean shot. And as for your 'lost technology' - most of it is now banned technology."

"Banned?" the brothers asked.

Kinza switched shoulders. "Yup – no more living power sources. Too inhumane was the verdict."

"But… what about our kind?" Knives asked. It had almost sounded sad the way he asked.

"You mean the Plantoids life form?" Kinza asked. "They've been given their own status. It seems that the modified environment that was created on Venus seems to suit them fine. When last I saw, they were flourishing quite nicely - Lean forwards please - Besides, it seems that someone lied in the past when they said they had cultivated and created the Plantoids in their report to the then military leaders…"

Knives craned his neck back to look at Kinza. It looked painful.

"What do you mean lied? You seem to know a great deal about our people," he hissed.

Kinza smirked. "Well of course I do – I'm gifted sir! I can see history! Like I said, that's the mission of our ship. There is nothing we can not see, hear or document in history, including the rash and unpredictable things that occur in secret government buildings on what old Earth used to call Area 51. On January 13, 2003, at 0:12 hours, a gene splicing experiment was started that should have never been allowed to continue. But if it hadn't, we wouldn't be talking right now, now would we?"

"Splicing?" Vash asked. "What is splicing?"

Kinza scratched his head for a moment. "Well, the easiest way to put it, say I take a tiny bit of you, then take a little bit of Knives here, cultivate the mess in an electro-statically charged vat of DNA starter material, and walla! Instant modified life form – which is exactly what some crazy scientist in an underground bunker did at Area 51 on that day. They had recovered an alien life form that had crashed on Earth. But the alien was dead, and the body was quickly decaying in their atmosphere. So, there wasn't much he could do with a dead alien, so why not try and make a living one? Hence he attempted to clone the creature. Initial attempts failed, so he decides to try it again, only this time, he uses an already living base to start with, a fresh batch of human DNA."

Knives spat at the thought. "Humans! We are not humans!"

Kinza looked him in the eyes. "Would you have preferred his alternative? He chose human DNA because it was the closest match next to the actual closest. And that was swine DNA."

"Here piggy piggy piggy!" Vash started to rattle off. He stopped when he saw the looks both Knives and Kinza were giving him.

"So anyway," Kinza continued, "the original alien life form's DNA cultivates quickly with the human base it is placed in. But there's something odd. The reaction between the two literally and figuratively begins to take on fission. Whether it has something to do with the fact that the alien was a tall humanoid shaped creature with wings on its back wasn't known, but the scientists were beginning to call it the Angel. One way or the other, it was giving off more energy than what was being put in. For the safety of everyone on the project, the newly created creature is housed within a transparent dome. The scientist uses the crazy idea of installing collection plates to gather all this free-flowing energy. He ran his lab and twelve others with the power for two years. In the meantime, the creature they now call Angel 2 shows no signs of intelligence, but is passive and simply flutters about in its domed cage like a bird."

"We are not caged birds! Ouch!" Knives winced as a section of bone was touched by the healer's beam and instantly mended itself.

"Nor were you the descendants of that particular creature," Kinza added. "Sit up – No, your line comes from Angel 5. By that time, more was known about your people, though at the time, they still considered them no better than cattle."

Anger burned in Knives eyes at the thought of his 'people' being treated in that manner. But he blinked when he noticed a large furry finger against his forehead.

"Save the rage for the end of the story son, you're not helping this!" Kinza said as he resumed his task. "Angel 5 was the first of the creatures made where they were 'mounted' within the dome, and the dome itself was shaped like the bulb we all know and love today. The reason was because it was found that the energy could be regulated better if the source didn't move about as much."

"This is sounding more and more disturbing," Vash noted as he bent down to retrieve his coffee cup from the floor. Kinza nodded.

"Every race has something to be ashamed of once in a while it seems. Humans aren't alone in doing despicable things 'for the good of the people' as they would say."

"Does yours?" Knives snapped at the Tomassamassa. Kinza shrugged and nodded a yes.

"Of course it does… as does yours." He shot a glare up as his patient. Knives was taken aback at the lack of fear in this creature beside him. He obviously knew the risks he was taking, yet continued to push his luck. Odd…

"So anyway," Kinza resumed, "Angel 5 is cultivated into many versions, each with its own identity, its own strengths, and its own weaknesses. It is the only flaw found by the scientist, yet he completely missed the reason for these discrepancies."

Kinza stood back from Knives. "Okay, your shoulders are finished. But I suggest you give them a day or two to settle properly. You'll be stiff in your joints for about a week or two. Now… where was I… Oh yes… Something happened that nearly blew the cover for the Plants. At this point, they were still only a mythical story bantered about in the stray corners of government offices. The first was the Chinese, who had launched a series of spy satellites that noticed the odd energy coming out of the Nevada Desert. The other was the head of the EPA."

"EPA?" Vash asked.

Kinza nodded. "The Environmental Protection Agency… a government agency in old Earth's United States. It seemed that someone let the EPA head know that the military had a new energy source that gave ample power, and no pollution. When the Chinese released their findings from their satellite, the EPA chief demanded the immediate release to the public of the technology called Plants. His reasoning was with the worsening pollution problems and the rapid loss of energy sources, having a system like this operational for the people was a matter of national security."

"And thus began our lives as energy slaves that they made for us!" Knives fumed.

Kinza returned to his chair and put the small wound healer away in its kit and pulled out a bigger one for Knives' leg wounds. "I can't argue with you there," he replied. "And worse yet, they came up with a cockamamie story about what was inside to bulbs. They didn't want to let on that the creature inside the Plant was anything but a human volunteer – to the military, the lie was about some medical experiment that went terribly wrong. In either case, the fact is that neither story given to either the public or the military was the truth." Kinza sat back and laughed as he adjusted the healer.

"What's so funny?" Knives bit, not seeing anything funny about this story.

"Sorry," Kinza apologized, "but there is a very strange twist of history here… you see, our mission to document histories involves more than just the history of this world, this Earth, or even just this dimension. We investigate multiple alternate histories and such as well. And in the month I've been with this ship, I've already seen two alternate histories to this one. We all know what became of this timeline – the Angel alien arrives on Earth and becomes a power source. On the level directly below this one dimensionally, the same incident is known as 'Second Impact' – the results were a near devastation of the planet… and the third one on the third level, well he's a friend of mine… His name is Chuck…" He got up and started on Knives' legs.

"So where is your Captain?" Vash asked. "It has been some time since I saw him last." Knives looked over at his brother confused. It then dawned on him who he was talking about.

"You don't mean that man who took you to the flying ship after I took your arm in July City?" he spat. "He was from your group?" he then lashed at his doctor. Kinza glanced up at him with an evil eye and continued with his work.

"Yes, the Captain has visited this world before doing advance scouting duty," Kinza noted. "He is currently at the Alpha Ship crash site – he said something about wanting to talk to your mother."

"Mother?" Vash asked. Knives was looking about as if the mention of Mother meant there was a presence in the room with them. "You mean the Plant that, well, you know…"

"Wasn't she… Didn't she…" Knives whispered. Kinza gave the healer a little surge making Knives wince slightly. He looked at the cat-like creature and saw a firm face looking back at him.

"Most of the Alpha Ship's Plants survived the destruction of the forward section," Kinza explained. "As the wreckage gathered to the rear, it shielded the aft section of the ship and cushioned the impact when it struck the ground in the dunes region of Southern December. On impact, Plant One exploded. The resulting firestorm created by the blast sealed the area around Plant Two under a three foot glaze of glass. But from what our scanners showed, she was still functional and operational. We made contact nearly a year ago." Knives watched as Kinza ground his teeth, obviously a bit agitated. "She is not very happy with you," he nearly snarled.

"Don't push your luck, furball. You're starting to make me mad," Knives hissed. But he was surprised to see that the anger in the creature's eyes failed to diminish, even with his added psychic burst he had placed in his threat.

Kinza snorted, and then gave his patient's left shoulder a slap with his palm. Knives saw a flash of light blind him momentarily as a sharp pain crashed through his body.

"Don't threaten your doctor," Kinza sniped. "Besides, you're one to talk! From what I've seen of the history data, you did most of what you did to somehow liberate your race, extinguish the humans, and make your brother suffer. How does attempting to kill your own mother explain your methods, humm?"

"You don't understand," Knives snapped. "There were necessary actions needed to be done, necessary sacrifices to be made…"

Kinza shook his head as he finished on the final wound. "Amazing – that's the same response given by all the megalomaniac dictators that I've had the pleasure of documenting, and I've only done a few weeks of this! Listen, if that's how you explain it to yourself, fine – but don't expect the Council of Plants to go for that malarkey."

Knives sat silently, his eyes wide open at the sound of that. Vash leaned into the table.

"Council of the who?" he asked. He knew his brother would have asked as well, but he seemed too petrified to move. Then a swell of thought struck him like a wave in the ocean. He looked at his brother and could have sworn that he saw his hair move as if submerged.

Kinza looked at the two and knew what was happening. He reached into his shirt and pulled out the device he had been told to wear and turned it down.

"Please wait," he thought. "Preparations are not done."

The wave subsided as Kinza returned the device to its full power setting. Knives blinked and looked over at him. He saw the Tomassamassa drop the doorknob looking item back down his shirt.

"What was that? WHAT WAS THAT?" he shouted. He was grasping the back of his chair with his hands trembling.

"That was your surviving elders," Kinza surmised, then glanced up, "and others it would seem."

"Others?"

Kinza nodded. "When SEEDS started their landings on this planet, twelve of the ships towards the back of the fleet managed to achieve escape velocity when Rem got the retro-rockets to fire. But when the Alpha ship's core computer exploded, contact was lost with their on-board systems. Since these ships were automated, there was no one to alter their courses, so the automatic systems took over and ran 'Fail Safe Protocol #1' – Safe Landing on the nearest body of land. Eight of the ships landed on the third moon, the other four on the fifth moon.

Vash sat back, his eyes wide -The fifth moon? Kinza nodded at him.

"You missed," he answered his worried stare. "Three of the ships were on the far side of the moon to your shot that put the hole in it. The forth was a close call, but they were safe… Mind you, you damn near got us, but we don't count!" Kinza picked up his kit and slung it over his shoulder. He stood up and looked at Knives.

"So, that's about it. I was sent to inform you about the pending trial. You are being held responsible for your actions starting from T-Minus 8 hours prior to planetary impact of the first ship. If you feel the need for representation, a lawyer will be provided for you. The trial will be in three months as of today. I suggest you start preparing."

Knives looked as if he was about to explode. "PREPARE! I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO PREPARE FOR! I DEMAND TO SEE MY ACUSERS! I DEMAND!"

Kinza cocked his head to one side. "Okay, but you'll get the same information I'm giving you now, only in a more painful way. You see, my Captain is there right now pleading your case."

"What?" Knives whispered. "A human is pleading my case?"

"Shocking, ain't it?" Kinza smiled. "Though, Captain Strom is anything but just a human. Gentlemen, I bid you adieu. I'll leave you that com unit over there to contact us if need be, or to ask for assistance from Lawyer Services." With that the Tomassamassa headed for the door. Vash followed to let him out. Knives just sat at the table staring at the floor.

Vash followed Kinza into the yard, looking back at the shack to make sure his brother wasn't behind them. He looked back at the officer and found him standing nearby.

"He's never going to understand why they want to put him on trial you know," Kinza said in a matter-of-fact way. "It was your mother who demanded it – I think she misses her mate."

"We came to this planet to get away from war, hate and misery," Vash noted. "But we seem forever burdened by our ghosts, don't we?"

Kinza nodded. "I see that you no longer carry that gun with you. What about the one in your left arm?"

Vash reached into a pocket and tossed the cat-man a small metal rod. He examined it closely and noticed the carbon tinged end that had come from rapid explosions nearby.

"Ah," Kinza said tossing it back. "The firing pin, ea?" Vash nodded. Kinza laughed. "Well then, I'll just have to update my report – Vash the Stampede, the Humanoid Typhoon is now only the Humanoid Tropical Depression!"

Vash smiled. "Listen, you said earlier, about the scientists who created our kind… something about not knowing what they had made…"

"You mean about the discrepancies in their readings on the 'offspring' of Angel 5?" Kinza shook his head. "Yea, he missed that one alright… but they did finally find out why they were off so much."

"And?"

Kinza sighed. "Call it fate, the work of the boss up there," he said while pointing at the sky, "who knows… The scientists weren't about to climb inside a Plant Containment Vessel to find out why, but oddly there were workers around the Plants that knew why. And maybe it was a big case of denial… The clones of Angel 5 were supposed to be like Angels 1 through 4, genetically inert, neither male nor female. But something happened. Genes switched. Chromosomes changed without permission. Who really knows? Even our readings aren't conclusive, and we have contacts way up there. But the Plantoids chose to be either males or females." Kinza laughed briefly. "It was finally acknowledged that they had true intelligence as well when it was found that one Plant insisted on a newspaper every morning, otherwise no power. Seems he wanted to know how the Anaheim Angels were doing."

Vash looked confused for a moment. Kinza snorted.

"They're a professional sports team," he answered Vash's perplexed puppy look. "Anyway, soon after the SEEDS ships departed, the Plants left behind became a bit erratic… there was that one in Detroit… oh, but that happened before SEEDS left… that's another story anyway… The main thing is the Plants were finally given their freedom with the Venus/Antarctic Treaty when the children came forth."

Vash blinked as Kinza started for his ship again. "Children? What children?" he asked as he followed close behind.

"What? You thought you two were the only ones?" Kinza asked the tall man. "You guys weren't even the first!"

He climbed on board the ship, removing the gun he hadn't needed and putting his kit away. He looked over towards the house, but found Vash next to his canopy.

"What will they do to him?" he asked the surprised cat-man.

"Keel-haul him I would think," Kinza let drop. "There is a massive swell of resentment in the Plantoids – many mates were lost in the bombarding of this planet with SEEDS ships. He may have wanted to wipe out the humans, but he ruined many of the Plants as well. We're trying to deal with the ones that have become rogue or wild because of the loneliness of their existence. Be it a rather odd and solo type of life, the Plantoids are quite social. But you should know that."

Vash nodded. "I was hoping that I was wrong. I have felt the pains of loss and thought they were just mine. The pains I feel in the air aren't imagination then. It is the cries of the Plants who have lost their… soul mates?"

Kinza shrugged and threw a switch. The ship started some turbines. "I wouldn't know that, but I wouldn't be surprised. Look, we'll be in orbit another day or two before we'll be heading off on our next mission. We've left a small crew at a base we've set up in the Angel's Wings section of July City."

Vash stood back and stared. "July? Why there?" he asked with near trepidation.

"There's mostly no one there to interfere with us, and in the meantime we can start some of the rebuilding needed," Kinza said while adjusting some controls. "Besides, the Captain said some of the cadets we're leaving here for the short time needs to rough it out a bit. Training exercises in other words."

Vash nodded. "So where are you off to?"

Kinza tapped on his com readout. "Looks like we hit the road on another of out dimensional history missions," he said while figuring out the notes. "Looks like a few levels down - Something about a world of monsters… ooh, scary!"

Vash smirked then got a serious look on his face. "Tell me Mr. Kinza… is there a chance that I may… see my mother?"

Kinza turned down the turbines slightly and looked at Vash. "She wants to see you very much. She told us that she had something she wanted to show you." Kinza sat back in his chair and pondered his controls a bit. When he glanced back, Vash was all weepy eyed and blubbering.

"Aw knock it off! You're getting my commander's Skat Back all wet!" he sarcastically sniped. "You take care of him now, hear? And get him properly ready for this trial. He needs you, Vash the Stampede!"

"But… but how do I do that?" the legend blubbered.

"I told you! Get a lawyer!" Kinza barked over the now increasing turbine sounds. "If you don't want to trust the ones we can provide you, maybe that cute lady that was following you can help – insurance folk know many lawyers!"

"Meryl? But I haven't seen her in almost three months!" Vash shouted over the din.

"Well you know where you left her! She's been waiting there ever since!" With that, Kinza yanked his canopy shut and waved farewell to the gunman. He brought the nose of the craft up and began the slow lifting process as to not blast Vash too hard with the dirt and sand. When he glanced down, he saw Vash standing like a statue with an odd look on his face. He wondered what that was all about, then spun the ship around to take him over the mesa.

"Skat Back 12 to Forrestal," he reported, "message delivered, two contacts made, both positive – Transmitter and disks also delivered. All is well – returning to base one."

"Roger that Kinza," the com system replied. "Negative return to base one, return to main ship instead."

There had been a change in the orders? That was interesting. Kinza brought his ship's engines up a bit and changed course into the upper atmosphere. Maybe the mission to play with the monsters couldn't wait?

Vash remained standing rigid as the remaining dust settled around him. There was a slight twitch in his face.

"She waited for… me?"

"Meow," a stray black cat said from the back of the thomas.

oOo

**Next Episode**

**_Redemption _**

**_The word means the act of redeeming or the condition of being redeemed._**

**_Redeem_**

**_To recover ownership by paying a debt_**

**_To pay off_**

**_To turn in_**

**_To fulfill_**

**_To cash _**

**_To rescue_**

**_To save from sin_**

**Next episode - Prelude Two of TRIGUN: MOON CHILD - The Smoking Angel - The second in the Entry Trilogy**

**Can a man be redeemed from under a mountain of sins?**

**This isn't a no-smoking zone.**

Tomassamassa, Elb Kinza, Roy Strom, Skat Backs, GENUINE DOORKNOB and the Starship Forrestal ©2003 DMS – used with permission

All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow

Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0309.11 - 0610.21


	2. Prelude Two ¤ The Smoking Angel

Prelude Two

TRIGUN:**  
****MOON CHILD****  
****The Smoking Angel**

**By R. A. Stott**

"What the hell am I doing here?"

His wings fluttered in the hot breeze. He looked at them with a curious expression. They were black, much like his clothes. The suns made a rainbow shimmer across their surface. He snorted.

"Why the hell are these so large?" he grumbled. "What sort of afterlife is this?"

"What makes you think this is the afterlife stranger?"

Wolfwood looked about. The voice had come from a crotchety old man seated in a chair. He was leaning back against a wall outside the local bar slowly rocking back and forth.

"What makes me think… you mean you see guys with wings often?" Wolfwood waved at the feathered appendages draping over his shoulders.

"What wings? 'You been out in the suns too long son?"

Wolfwood stood back and gave the man an odd look. "You really can't see these things?"

The man looked at him and scratched his belly. "Look son, all I see is a guy talking nonsense about things that aren't there! Besides, where'd you come from anyway? You weren't there a moment ago."

_Nicholas D. Wolfwood – Preacher, servant of God, gunslinger. I was dead, now I'm not sure. I see a pair of wings on my back, but obviously no one else can. I expected maybe the afterlife would be different than this, and with my background, I expected maybe a trip to hell rather than heaven. Maybe this is my hell… to relive my life on the same hell-hole I left behind. Now wouldn't that be a fitting punishment!_

"You look like you could use a stiff drink, son," the old man suggested.

Wolfwood patted down his chest and found his wallet. Pulling it out, he found that there was some money in it. He could have sworn that he had used his last double dollar the morning before his run in with Chapel the Evergreen. But there was at least $$50 in there.

"What I need is…" he mumbled to himself. He continued to search himself and found nothing else in his pockets. Looking about, he spotted the local General Store and trotted over to it. He looked at the doorway and glanced back at the wings that seemed to loom over him. He walked into the door, and found that the wings did indeed pass through the door jam – as a matter of fact, they were through the low roof of the store most of the time as well. Odd…

Five minutes later, he was outside with a pack of his favorite cigarettes. He quickly tore the box open, listening to air rush into the vacuum-sealed and freeze dried package. He found it interesting that the type was the older version than he was used to – a rarity, in the original Pre-Landing survival version, leftovers from the stockpiles brought to this world from the old world. Normally these versions were expensive, but the store keeper must have miss-priced these. They were the same price he remembered for the normal synthetic versions he was used to - Strange.

He slapped the pack several times in his hand and looked back at the store. He was bothered by something that occurred. In the back had been a selection of guns. He was looking them over, seeing that he might have to keep his defenses up wherever he was. He reached to touch one and found his hand passing through it. He was relieved to find that the cigarettes stayed firmly between his fingers.

He saw a fountain in what he thought was the center of town. He had seen many villages and boroughs built around central hubs or water basins like this one. He walked over and sat on a bench. He lit a match and drew the flame into the end of the paper shrouded weed. He coughed a bit, and a tear rolled from his eye. He forgot how much more potent the real thing was, but soon felt the smoky taste rolling through him again. He sighed and relished it.

_The last cigarette… oh yea… I was in that church… Millie - ah dear sweet Millie - always able to do what I couldn't. I wonder what she's up to now? I hope I didn't make her cry… Then again - I wonder if I made Vash cry?_

A sound behind him made Wolfwood turn around. It was then that he realized that he wasn't sitting at the central point of a town. Maybe at one time it was, but it really was the end – no, it continued on from this point as well – it was a boulevard – it stretched iles away to one side, and again in the other direction!

"This isn't a small town," he said to himself. "This is one of the seven cities! But which one? I don't recognize any of the buildings."

He looked at himself in the reflection of the water. The wings were still there. At least there wasn't any halo – nor horns for that matter. He sighed.

"Just my luck. I wonder if I can do anything with these things?"

He looked to his left. He looked to his right. He then gritted his teeth.

Not a twitch. The wings remained neatly folded. He could feel them there, as they even would shift him in the breeze, but he just couldn't get them to do anything.

"It's like having that cross-punisher of mine on both shoulders," he grumbled and dragged hard on his cigarette. He then noticed his shadow.

The wings seemed to only partly obscure the sunlight. His shadow was as dark as expected, but the wings seemed almost transparent.

"Humm… maybe I'm just partly dead? Or partly alive… Damn, why can't anything be easy?" He noticed a stray cat wandering by. It noticed him. It hissed, and then scampered away.

"Nice…" He stood up and started to walk down the boulevard.

The town was big. If it wasn't for the mesa and the plants at the end of it, he would have had a hard time figuring just how far this city stretched. It was larger than any of the big cities he had seen so far. Why was this one so different? This boulevard alone was odd – it was so straight. There were absolutely no curves or bends in the road, only slight hills as it rolled naturally over the flat terrain. With the few breaks made by fountains, the two edges of the road seemed to meet at the base of the mesa way on the horizon.

"Man, this is like being in the desert with buildings on either side!" Wolfwood sniped. The road was wide, so standing near the middle of the dirt and dust did feel like being in the middle of nowhere. And because it was so wide, any person, vehicle, animal or object in the road had ample room between them.

"Damn lonely road in the middle of a city like this," he mumbled to himself. The layout was unfamiliar, and the buildings didn't help much either. It looked as if most of them lining this part of the town were residential, which meant no signs saying where he was. Even those he saw that did have them only said the basics, like Grocery, General Store, Stables, Fuel and whatnot.

"Not even a newspaper vendor," he griped. He stepped into a store or two to see if they had the local rag and found that due to a strike, the paper wasn't being printed. And when he asked what city this was, he was given a cold shoulder and asked to leave.

"This is the damnedest place I've ever been in!" Wolfwood stood in the center of the boulevard again. "I'M A MAN OF THE CLOTH DAMMIT! WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU ALL!?"

He opened his eyes after shouting to the sky. He looked down to see a few children looking up at him. Well, at least there were a few folk around that would make a crowd.

"Sorry about that, kids," he grinned. He scratched the back of his head and laughed. "Sometime we adults just have to bay at the moons."

"What are those mister?" a small girl asked.

Wolfwood looked at her. To his surprise, she had one of the long feathers of his left wing in her hand.

"Yea," a boy near her added. "Are those real?"

Wolfwood stood for a moment with his mouth agape. "You… you mean you can see these?" he asked as he quickly gestured to the wings.

"Well sure," the kids all chimed. There were about seven of them now, none of whom could be over six years in age.

"Good," he said while bending down to their height. "I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one who knew they were there."

"They're kinda hard to hide!" one boy towards the rear said. Wolfwood laughed.

"Do they work?" the girl asked again. Wolfwood looked at them again. They still seemed to just hang there.

"I don't know for sure," Wolfwood said, wondering about that himself. "They're kinda new to me, so I haven't had the chance to get the kinks out of them."

"Maybe they just need to be stretched!" the girl squealed, and began to pull on the feather. Before Wolfwood could stop her, she was stretching the wing wide. While he attempted to stop her, one of the boys grabbed the other wing and ran the other way.

"OW! OW! OW!" he yelled, as there was some resistance to the pull. The wings were now about twenty feet in length from one tip to the other. There really wasn't much pain involved - it just was a shock to him having them unfolded for the first time.

He looked at the extended wings and the two giggling kids that were holding them open. "Well bless me, look at that!" he smiled. He then suddenly found himself in an impromptu game of 'Sting Abound with Josie' with the children half using his wings like a May Pole, and half like a limbo line.

_**Sting Abound with Josie**__**  
**__**A Rocket full of Frozies**__**  
**__**Crashes**__**  
**__**Crashes**__**  
**__**We all go POW!**_

He tipped his head as the children played. He imagined Millie asking him "Are you having fun Mr. Preacher?" in her sweet innocent way, and then trying to limbo under his wing.

Of course, this would have been followed by Vash trying the same thing and causing everything to fall over.

_**Crashes**__**  
**__**Crashes**__**  
**__**We all go POW!**_

"That moron," Meryl would have said, and they all would have ended up in a laughing tangled pile.

He smiled and chuckled as the children played. They all collapsed to the dirt in a heap of arms, legs, and now dusty gray wings, laughing and cheering.

"Elizabeth? Daryl? What are you doing?"

Wolfwood looked up. There was a woman looking down at a pair of children, one of whom was the girl that had been holding his left wing.

"We're playing with this man and his wings mommy!" the little girl cheerfully replied.

"No harm done, really m'am," Wolfwood added with a grin.

The lady half ignored him. "What wings, Elizabeth?" she asked the child.

The child looked confused. She looked at the long black feather in her hand and then at her mother with a puzzled look. She held the feather up and said "This one mommy!"

Wolfwood sensed this wasn't going to end well, but he spotted one of the boys that had been playing with him was holding a stick.

"You there!" he said from his back. "Yes, you there with the stick! Do me a favor and trace my wings in the dust! Elizabeth, hold my wing down, and let him outline it for your mommy. That's it! Now the other wing. You're doing great champ! Don't forget to outline my head and legs. Terrific! Let's see what we have!"

Before the mother could complain, Wolfwood had his dust tracing made. The children released his wing as he got up off the dusty road. The wing folded neatly again, dropping a small cloud of dust, which surprised the lady.

Wolfwood turned and looked at the image left in the road. Even he was shocked at the picture there in the dirt.

"Bless me father," he whispered. He then felt something touch his right wing. When he looked, he saw the mother running her hand down it.

"I – I don't understand," she said. "I don't see them, but I can feel them. The feathers are soft and smooth…"

He laughed and scratched the back of his head. "Believe me, m'am, I'm just as confused as you are."

"Aren't they cool mommy?" the boy enthusiastically grinned. Many of the other kids joined in.

Wolfwood stood back and enjoyed the moment. Children laughing and having fun always seemed to be so… restful?

_What was that? Something just… knifed through me? A feeling of… evil, hatred, anger, and sorrow? That sorrow – I know that sorrow!_

He looked around. The feelings he felt weren't nearby, but from the far distant building along the base of the mesa. He stared hard to pinpoint which and where, though the glare of the suns and the heat rising from the street wasn't helping things. He found it coming from the tallest structure near the central set of buildings that had been built squarely out of the rock of the towering mesa wall.

"Excuse me m'am," he asked the lady who was still stroking his invisible wing, "but what is that tall building in the center over there?" She squinted as she followed his pointing finger at the one he felt the feeling from in the wavy heat-moving distance.

"The tall one in the middle?" she asked. "That's the Third City Bank and Trust building. I have my mortgage there."

It took a moment to click in Wolfwood's mind. "Third City Bank… Third City Bank!? As in The Third City of July?"

The lady blinked. "Why yes, this is the city of July. Why do you ask?"

The world spun about Wolfwood's head. He looked about at the homes and buildings, the people and the children, the lives that he knew…

…he knew were about to be thrashed by a maelstrom - Torn apart by a typhoon.

Forever ruined in a blinding flash.

He could feel it – it was only moments away. These people, these children, to them it was doomsday. A cold rush ran across his brow and a chill down his spine. Now the events of what was going on in the building iles away were playing in his mind. A gunshot rang through his head. A man in red enters the main lobby of the building. Someone with extreme malice in his soul is waiting for that red jacket to arrive in the room where he is seated next to the man he just slaughtered.

Wolfwood had seen the destruction of what had once been the Third City. It now began to make sense to him, the lay of the wreckage in his memory to the buildings and homes that stood before him now. He also remembered the events of the Fifth Moon and Augusta. He turned to the woman. The look in his face must have been something, because she gasped when he looked at her.

"M'am, get these children to safety – there is about to be a disaster!" He then started running down the street, leaving her trembling behind him. He glanced back. She was staring at him.

"NOW!!" His voice boomed and echoed. It even shocked him.

She blinked. For a moment, a pair of black wings appeared on the man's back to her, and she swallowed.

"Mother of mercy, has the angel of death just saved us?" she whispered. She gathered the children and herded them away.

"Blast it Vash, this is how it all started, right?" Wolfwood angrily said to himself. He could still feel the events happening ahead of him. The wings weren't helping much at all.

"Damn it all, if you're going to be there, work, blast it! WORK!!"

As if hearing his command, the wings spread wide as he ran. He suddenly found himself soaring off the boulevard and flying towards the city center. Many of the adults stood in awe of the man who had just lifted off the ground like some super hero. But the children saw the wings flapping and sailing through the sky.

_Vash has made it to the fifth floor. I can feel it. There's the door. Vash thinks he's about to meet someone – he's excited… no – now he too feels the anger, the hatred. He's pulling his… guns? Where did he get THAT gun? He's entering the room! Damn it wings, FASTER! FASTER!!_

Tears were flying away from his eyes as the wind seared his face. What seemed only a moment ago as iles after iles of road between him and the city center seemed to blur away. He found himself nearing the bank building rapidly.

A blinding flash struck him. He quickly back stroked his wings to stop his approach. There was no time left. He looked at the city around him, and back towards the neighborhood he had just let behind.

"There is always another way," rang through his head. "Thou shall not kill – what kind of preacher are you anyway?"

"My big sister always said to do what I could for my fellow man!"

_Millie – dear sweet Millie – I guess you're not even born yet, or are just a child… a baby right now, if this is truly 23 years ago…_

_I'll still miss you Millie. This is for you honey…_

Wolfwood looked at the window where all the light was coming from. He positioned himself before it and spread his wings wide. The window burst and a ball of energy erupted out of it. The event seemed in slow motion to him. He adjusted his angle and lined up the shot. If he was truly an angel, maybe he could deflect the blast enough to save a part of the city. One life, that's all he needed to save – just one life saved. It would be more than he had ever done in the past – or was that the future?

He steadied himself and hardened his wing, and took the blast full in the face.

-----------------------------

He opened his eyes. All was white – almost too white.

"Now where the hell am I?" he asked.

A vision crashed through his head. Knives snapping his fingers - The plates on the top of Vash's gun popping away - The incredible winged cannon that erupted from the gunman's arm - The unbelievable light that shot towards Wolfwood and the form of Knives being tossed over his head, followed by the most amazing feeling of shock he had ever felt in his life - Heat – he felt heat – blazing, fiery heat followed by a bone chilling cold.

And then he was in white.

"Welcome, Nicholas D. Wolfwood," a gentle woman's voice said. "You have arrived just in time. Please be seated."

"Aren't I lying down?" he asked, more confused than anything.

"No," the voice laughed. He could have sworn he heard a few others laugh as well.

He rubbed his eyes. They still stung from the burst of light. He checked his pockets to see if his sun glasses were still there – they were not.

Then something struck him.

"Hey!" he shouted. "What was that for?"

"Photon?" the woman's voice answered him.

"Transference error – trying to compensate," a younger voice of a girl replied.

Then what felt like being run over by a sand steamer chewed over Wolfwood's body, and the white turned to red, and then to black.

-----------------------------

"Oh, that was horrible," he murmured. He lowered his arms, which he found were shielding his face. He found that he was floating over the same spot he had been earlier, when he had taken the full brunt of Vash's blast. Below him was wreckage. The center city part of July lay in ruin below him. Looking up, the face of the mesa and the two plants that had made up the north edge and south edge of town were simply scattered debris. Sand had encroached into the area, and from what he could see, the amount there told him that he was back near the time of his death, some 23 years later.

He slumped in mid air. "It didn't work," he told himself. "Damn! It didn't work! I couldn't stop the destruction! I could…"

He had been slowly turning around observing the destruction when he saw in the distance a small enclave of homes and businesses. They were in the far end of what had been the boulevard. He pushed his wings towards that patch.

"Sir," a young man in a uniform shouted. "Incoming bogey at 3 o'clock!" He drew a weapon and aimed for the flying man.

"Lower your weapon, cadet. This man is expected," an officer barked.

A woman and a man peeked out of a store at the commotion. The strange officers and cadets had not been any problems to them – as a matter of fact, they had been a boon to business in this desolate part of July.

"Look Jen," the man said. "It's him – he's returned!"

Wolfwood stopped over the section that seemed untouched by the destruction of the city behind him. To that matter, the angle the rubble laid showed him that the blast had pushed the other buildings over in this particular direction, but stopped oddly at this point. Why?

The boulevard still remained open at this point as well, as did one of the central fountains that had spotted it. A small Plant had been set up nearby – from the size of it, it looked as if it may have been one of the cavalry's own portable units, but from the amount of clutter around it, it had been there for some time. Then he noticed that the destruction continued on beyond this small section of town. He floated in puzzlement.

A vision flashed in his mind – the image of his outline in the dust made by the children. The shape of this area was the same as the outline. Had he actually saved this section of July? He floated over towards the center of the boulevard and looked about. With the homes and buildings around him, it was as if the blast had never happened, unless he looked down the road in either direction.

He spied the General Store he had once attempted to get information from before. A new sign over the entry read "Angel Wings General Store."

"I'll be damned," he snorted. "They really think I saved them."

"That's because you did, Nicholas Wolfwood," a gruff voice said behind him. He turned to find the officer there with his hand outstretched. "Good to meet you sir. My name is Yerkies, Lieutenant Yerkies, 27th Recon Unit."

Wolfwood wasn't expecting a friendly handshake – in his lifetime few of these had ever been given him. He looked momentarily at the hand, then gingerly took it in his and shook it.

"So," he asked the officer, after noticing the cadets behind him as well, "are you from the cavalry? Those don't look like their uniforms."

"No sir, we are a training group from an outside source," Yerkies noted, as he pointed up into the sky.

"Really?" Wolfwood asked in a matter of fact way. "You mean another of Vash's un-crashed ships?"

The Lieutenant shook his head. "No sir, further than that. This is my cadet troop on a training mission to research the history of this planet and to create a chronology of the after effects of the SEEDS ships landings. We are observers."

Wolfwood stood and stared a moment. "Then… then you're able… to leave the planet?"

The officer laughed. "Well, yes and no. Our ship has departed, and we're scheduled to be here for the next year or so, but eventually, yes we will be able to leave this planet. Our mission is to also prepare this world for the rescue ships that will be heading this way shortly."

Wolfwood stood back a step. "Rescue ships? Now? What took them so long?"

Yerkies shook his head. "Mr. Wolfwood, you must understand, the SEEDS ships were not allowed to be hindered with. It is only now that man's involvement at this end of the galaxy did it warrant us to come out here and see what was needed. Unfortunately, that is the way of the space fleets. We knew that you would be coming from our history scans, though there was an 80 chance that you would simply be recalled."

Wolfwood frowned. "Recalled? What do you mean recalled?"

"Mr. Wolfwood, you are still quite dead." The officer pulled his gun, spun it about and handed its grip to the angel-gunman. "Here, let's see if you can take this…"

Wolfwood reluctantly reached for the strange looking pistol, but again found his fingers passing through it. He looked at the officer who was holding it. He was shaking his head as if he had expected that result. He flipped it about in his hand and returned it to his side where it clung without a holster.

"You see, Mr. Wolfwood," Yerkies said, "we might not see those wings, but we know that they are there."

"I see them sir!" a small cadet said. Wolfwood jumped at the sight of the fox-like creature with his hand – check that – paw in the air.

"That's because you're not a human, cadet," the officer replied in a hard gruff bark.

"But I can see them too," a young girl said.

"Take your sun glasses off," he suggested. As she did she looked at Wolfwood then put them back on.

"Oh, I see – the polarization of the glasses…"

"Indeed," Yerkies the instructor said with a nod. He returned his gaze to Wolfwood. "All this that you see was made possible by the fact that you shielded this area from the Angel Arm Cannon's blast some 23 years ago. This area did survive the destruction of the blast, though it did suffer in the aftermath."

Wolfwood nodded. "If you mean about the way the survivor fed off one another, yea, I have heard of that."

"The blast took out the cavalry's First Battalion," the Yerkies noted. "It took nearly a year to get the Second and Third Battalions here to regain order. But by that time, most of the inhuman things possible were done. So in the long run, Millions Knives still managed to ruin even this small area. Those who returned after order was restored have stayed, much with the cavalry's help. But that ends in two years – but that should be in time for our ships to arrive – now that the dust has settled, so to say."

Wolfwood turned about. "Wait a minute, are you saying that you didn't come here sooner because you were waiting for Vash and Knives to end their fight?"

The officer looked down. "It looks that way, doesn't it? But I don't think that was the reason, otherwise this cadet mission would never have been allowed to land here. Excuse me, I'll be right back."

"Why don't I believe that?" Wolfwood grumbled. He sat down at the fountain and lit a cigarette. A cat strolled by, hissed at him again and ran off.

"This is getting to be a broken record," he griped and took a drag on the cigarette.

"Mr. Angel?" asked a man who had come from the store holding a glass of water. Wolfwood looked up at him and now at the young woman behind him and nodded.

"M – Mr. Angel, I'm sure you don't remember me. My name is Daryl. This is my wife Jen."

Wolfwood nodded again. "Daryl, Jen," he acknowledged.

"I… I was the boy who held your wing out when you first came here."

Wolfwood looked harder at the man. Age had obviously changed his looks, but it was indeed the young boy. He smiled and greeted them properly.

"What happened to your wings?" Daryl asked him.

Wolfwood pointed over at the cadets. "Get a pair of their sun glasses – you'll see them, they're there."

"I remember your mother…" the woman said as she reached for the air behind Wolfwood's back. "Ah yes, there they are!"

Wolfwood could feel the young fingers caressing the feathers and he felt good. He looked up at her.

"I'd give them to you, but I seem a bit attached to them," he grinned. She laughed.

"So, what brings you back here, Mr. Angel?" Daryl asked.

"Damned if I know," he replied. "The name's Wolfwood, by the way, and I just came from the blast that did all of this."

"But that was 20 some odd years ago," the man said.

"Seems that doesn't matter to us angels, if that is what I am," Wolfwood said as he continued to drag on the cigarette. "I'm sorry that I couldn't do more."

"That's okay," Daryl said. "When you told my mother to get us to shelter, and then protected our home, that was more than enough for us. Thank you."

Wolfwood looked at the water being handed to him and took it. He then was offered and shook the man's hand. It was a warm and friendly handshake.

Two small children came out of the store. A boy was hooting and yelling, a girl was sobbing.

"Nicky, have you been teasing your sister again?" Jen scolded.

The boy glanced back. "No, she fell down again," he lied. Wolfwood knew it, but then again, so did his parents.

"My child, it is wrong to lie to your parents!" Wolfwood gently informed the boy, who stopped square in his tracks at the strange vision he was having.

"Daddy, who is that man with the wings?" he yelped.

Daryl bent down to his son and pointed to Wolfwood. "This is the man who saved your mommy and daddy when we were your age," he said to the child.

"Wow! Are those real?" the girl exclaimed.

Wolfwood laughed and spread the wings wide. "As real as they let them be," he chuckled. He was about to let them play with them when the officer reappeared.

"Mr. Wolfwood, there is a message for you," he informed him.

"A message?" he wondered. Wolfwood stood up, drank the water and handed the glass back to Daryl. He thanked him for the drink and followed Yerkies.

"Ah, there you are, Mr. Wolfwood. Good," a shimmering image on a small screen said as he entered a tent along the outer perimeter of the village of Angel Wings. It looked like a woman's face, but it was hard to say, as the image was too bright. "We are in need of you here. We were worried that the teleportation overshoot sent you out into space."

"Not with our system, Madam Chancellor," the officer replied. "It was simply a backtracking to the original source of transmission. Unfortunately, the energy added by the blast, his own energy levels, and the time coordinates overloaded the systems. We are ready to return him to the Alpha Base."

"Whoa - whoa - whoa, wait a minute!" Wolfwood sniped. "What's all this about?"

His answer came in the form of a piece of paper placed in his hand. It had been tri-folded. On the facing cover, legal information seemed to drizzle off it, but the middle of the document caught his eye right away.

"The People vs. Millions Knives" it read in bold text.

Wolfwood felt a number of emotions at that moment.

_A trial! Knives was about to go on trial! Does that mean Vash has finally tamed his brother? Woohoo!_

_This – this is a subpoena! THIS IS A SUBPOENA! I'M BEING CALLED AS A WHAT!?_

"You are being called as a witness, that is all," Yerkies replied at the unspoken worried look. "All charges are being dropped on your case. And to rest assure that no outside influence will be brought on you as before…"

"Huh?" Wolfwood asked, interrupting the officer. "What outside influences?"

"The orphanage 300 iles west of December?" he pointed out. "We have a cadet group there as well – they routed out any of Knives operatives that remained there. All are safe. That was why you were working for Knives in the first place, was it not?"

Wolfwood scratched the back of his neck. "Yea, I had forgotten," he joked aloud while giving a sheepish grin. He looked at the paper. "Okay, I'll do my civic duty, if it gets Knives what's coming to him. But answer me this, glowing lady."

"Of course," the monitor stated gently.

"What the hell am I?" He slapped his hand on his chest. "I died. I know I died. I felt the blood drain out of me. What the hell is this I'm in?"

The image on the monitor seemed to look down for a moment. "You are like Vash and Knives, at least for the time being," it replied. "You are a temporary child of the Plants."

Wolfwood looked at the monitor with a perplexed look. "Temporary? What do you mean by temporary?"

"Your soul, as you call it, was about to depart your body, but we knew you would be needed for the upcoming trial of Millions Knives. So our combined energies captured your soul before it could move on and we placed it into one of our off-springs. So, for the time being, you are a child of the Plants."

"That explains why Knives was inside that light bulb then," Wolfwood noted to himself. "Then who are you?"

The face nodded. "My name is Myuki. I am the Chancellor of the Plants. I am also the mother of Vash and Knives."

"Damn!" he swore. "You're going to put your own son on trial?"

She paused. "For what he did to humanity? Yes. For what he did to the Plantoids? Yes. The 'People' in this case, Mr. Wolfwood, are all those who were on the SEEDS ships, or were born after the landings, and include those of the Plants, and those on the moons above us. His crimes are many and vast."

Wolfwood sighed. "Are you going to be the judge?"

"No, obviously, I am biased." The Chancellor took a breath. "The judges are being born as we speak, and will be taught the rules of the law. Moral codes will be installed into them, and justice will be maintained."

"Did she say that the judges were being born now?" he asked Yerkies. He noticed the officer laughing.

"The Plantoids grow at an amazing rate," he noted. "By the time the trial is ready to proceed, the seven judges will be ready. They will be taught by our computers, so that they will be as unbiased as possible – plus they will have no prior knowledge of the events that occurred up to this point. Fortunately, like all living things, they will be able to judge on their own opinions and such. That is why this should suffice for a true unbiased opinion."

"Yes, but who are these computers?" Wolfwood asked. "Forgotten technology like the Plants?"

"Only forgotten by the people here on this planet, not to all humanity, and their friends," he added as he gestured towards some of the cadets who were anything but human. Wolfwood nodded.

"Okay," he said as he pulled another cigarette out. "I'll do it."

"Please don't light that in here," one of the cadets said. "Krax here breathes methane and lighting that in here might cause an explosion!"

"You'd better let him have one more," Myuki said with a slight giggle. "Once he is here, he won't be allowed to smoke them, and after the trial, forget it."

"Oh damn, what have I got myself into now?" he grumbled and left the tent.

Night was falling as the second sun began to dip below the horizon. The fifth moon with its new crater was overhead. He examined the hole while lying on his back on the angled slab of a building just on the outside of the village. Behind him, the gentle glow of the Plant bathed Angel Wings in a dull light. Above him, the moon was large and full, making looking at the stars a bit hard to do. A piece of space junk caught his attention. It traveled from southwest to northeast. It must have been large and was tumbling, as it would get brighter and then dim as the good reflective side would show the sunlight that was illuminating it.

_So, in the long run, I don't get off this planet alive. I do move onto another plane. I wonder if it's heaven or hell?_

_I wonder if I could see Millie again?_

_Damn, what a life… or death… crap._

oOo

**Next Episode**

_**The long history of the SEEDS Project has its roots far in the past **_

In the rain of a dreary Detroit day, the fate of the future lays at the feet of a cold naked woman who has little memory to where she came from or where her fate will lead.

History watches, while fate intervenes, and people meet for the very first time. In the melancholy future that history awaits, those who play this game will suffer, those who don't die, and those on the sidelines await fate.

To the woman, love was her fate.

To the man, his devotion was his.

To the brother, only his hate remains.

Next episode - The third prelude story to TRIGUN: MOON CHILD - Motor City Blues - The final story in the Entry Trilogy

The future can not be devoid of its past.

The Observers ©2003 DMS - Used with Permission

All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow

All characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0311.10


	3. Prelude Three ¤ Motor City Blues

**Prelude Three**

TRIGUN:**  
****MOON CHILD****  
****Motor City Blues**

**By R. A. Stott**

_**"…**__**the Plants left behind became a bit erratic… there was that one in Detroit… oh, but that happened before SEEDS left… that's another story anyway**__**…" **_**- Kinza – Prelude One – TRIGUN: Moon Child – History's Observations**

The rain was falling across Detroit. She walked along Michigan Avenue with a tattered shroud across her body. The rain made her long blond hair stick to her back as if plastered there. Cars slashed her as they moved along. She looked back at the darkened city. A blackout was covering that section of the town. She turned the corner at 1st Street and found a bar where the lights were still on. She stumbled into the doorway and collapsed to the floor.

"Come on darlin'," a husky voice said as she began to revive. "Drink this."

It was bitter and strong, which was probably why she was being given this awful tasting fluid. She coughed and gagged a bit, but if the plan was to wake her up, it worked.

"Blasted Plant!" she heard someone curse. "Ever since they installed that new South Station unit, it's been so full of bugs a can of Raid couldn't get rid of 'em!"

"Ea, that casino down there uses too much of its power, that's why," another voice griped.

"I remember when we built that casino," a third voice reminisced. "Tore down an old tenement apartment ta do it."

"You didn't build that casino," the first one started in on the third voice. "You lived in that tenement!"

"We all lived in that tenement," the second added.

"Indeed we did," the third agreed. "So whose deal is it?"

"Yours dummy!" the other two barked. Their yelling was causing her ears to hurt. She covered her head with her arms and whimpered.

"Quiet you three," the husky voice snarled with as much a whisper as it could do. "Can't you see that you're causing Cinderella here pain?"

She looked under her arm at the person whose voice she was hearing. She was a burly dark woman with short curly hair and an apron on over her blouse and jeans. She noticed that she was being looked at and winked back at her.

"Darlin', I won't ask what you're doing in this part of town wearing nothing but those rags, but you look like you're in need of some help," the woman said. She assisted her to her feet and showed her to a back section of the bar. There were a set of steps that she coaxed her up. At the top was an apartment that seemed to be the home of the gruff voiced lady, and one other.

"Mary, what did you bring in here this time?" a squeaky voice said as she was seated in a chair. She looked across the room and saw a thin tall woman with buck teeth and stringy blond hair.

The initial kick whatever it had been she drank was starting to wear off. The exertion climbing the stairs took its toll on her. She slumped over and fell asleep.

Morning broke with the sunlight blaring in through a high window. She blearily saw that the room she was in had a high ceiling. She sat up and found that she was on a sofa, and that a blanket had been placed over her. She wrapped it around herself and rocked slowly letting the ringing in her head pattern her movements. She placed her head onto the blanket hoping that shielding her eyes would stop the pain throbbing between her temples.

"It was only a little sip of cognac, dear," the short lady that she kind of remembered being called something like Mary said from over a railing above her. With great pain she glowered up at her to find that the apartment had a loft where the other ladies were sleeping. Then the skinny one looked over the railing at her, and suddenly she didn't feel so bad.

Because she looked worse than she felt.

The apartment filled with the smell of something that made her nose perk up for some reason. She didn't know why, but there was something that made her stand up and wander over to a doorway to the room under the loft. There Mary was pouring something dark and hot into a cup. She smiled and placed the steaming mug on the table in front of her.

"You might want to put some sugar in that – it's kinda strong," she said.

She placed her thin fingers around the cup – it was hot, but nothing she couldn't handle… why did she know that? She took a sip of the brew. It was strong. It was another bitter taste. White granular material was offered to her with a laugh from Mary.

"Try it with the sugar, otherwise that face might stick," she chided. She watched Mary spoon some into her cup and stir it in. She then offered her the spoon.

She looked at it with the curiosity of a child. She dipped it into the sugar and poured some into her cup. She followed it with another, then another, then another, then yet another.

"Uh, like it sweet do ya?" Mary asked with a quizzical look on her face. She briefly looked away. When she looked back, an empty cup was being shown her with a look on the girl's face wanting more.

"You don't look impoverished," Mary murmured. "Other than not having any clothes on when you fell in here, you seem healthy enough… when did you eat last?"

She shrugged and looked down. Mary took her cup and refilled it. The other woman stumbled into the kitchen.

"Coffee! Must have coffee!" squeaked. She grabbed a cup that had been left on the far end of the table and cuddled it. As she began to sip, she finally noticed the frail look she was getting from the other end of the table.

"Have we got a name yet?" she asked Mary, who had seated herself across from her. She shook her head.

"Actually, I haven't heard a sound from her yet," she said leaning into the table and looking at the strange girl. At least this time she was sipping her coffee, even though she had decimated the sugar bowl again. It was a good thing she didn't tell her about putting in cream…

"Do you know your name darlin'?" Mary asked her. The girl looked up and shook her head. Mary huffed. "Well, if you can't remember it, why not call you Cindy?"

"Cindy? Why Cindy?" the other lady said through a piece of toast.

Mary shrugged. "Yesterday we called her Cinderella when she fell through the door downstairs. Cindy fits her." She sipped some coffee and looked at the girl. "Mary, Cindy and Patty," she said pointing at the each of them. "It's the 'Y' girls!"

Patty shook her head then glanced first at a clock on the wall then at a wrist watch on her arm. "Whatever, Mary… I'm gonna be late to the casino if I don't get my tail in gear. Save some pop in the fridge fer me, will ya?" She got up as Mary waved to her. Cindy listened to her scamper up the steps to the loft. She then heard her cursing and complaining about some uniform she had to wear.

"12 hour shifts at that casino – it's gonna kill her some day!" Mary mumbled. She looked at her cup and snorted. "I'm one to talk, aren't I? I open the bar at eleven and close at two in the morning. I'm the one working to the early grave…" She looked at the girl who was pondering the toast Patty had left behind.

"You don't look banged up, so you weren't assaulted," she commented on what she saw before her. "And you're too pretty to be gutter trash. Someone's gotta be looking for you. How did you loose your memory though… Maybe we should go to the police…"

Cindy snapped out of her gaze and looked at Mary with shock and worry. She started to shake her head in a rapid 'no way'. She then felt a bit hyper as the caffeine from the coffee started to kick in.

"Okay - okay - okay!" she tried to sooth Cindy, whose eyes were dancing about. "No police. Well at least you know who they are!" Mary sighed. She turned about to look at the clock - Another day for the bar in less than an hour and a half. Nuts.

Mary went upstairs to get dressed. Cindy stepped out of the kitchen with another headache caused by the brown fluid. She suddenly found a pair of pants and a t-shirt flopping onto her head. There were a few other things, but she couldn't figure out what they were. She looked up from under the pile at Mary who was looking down at her.

"There," she said. "Patty doesn't wear that stuff often anyway. If you needed a bathroom, there's a small one past the kitchen." She then vanished beyond the edge of the loft to do whatever she was doing up there.

She looked at the clothes that had been dropped on her. The two frilly – um - things - that had been in with the pants and shirt seemed odd to her. The other two garments she had seen others, including Mary and Patty, wearing. But these other _things _she had not seen anyone wearing.

Patty came charging down the stairs like her life was on fire. She looked at the puzzled expression on Cindy's face and giggled a bit. "Don't go getting any of my clothes messed up now, you hear?" she kidded her. She reached down and turned on the TV. "Here you go. If you want to watch anything, the remote is right here. I'll see you tonight – bye bye!"

Cindy inserted her legs into the pants. They were tight – very tight. She found some sort of opening device at the bottom of each leg allowed her to get her legs in easier, but they were still tight. The shirt went on easy enough, but for some reason didn't feel right, and there was this tongue thing flapping up and flipping in her face all the time. She tried it the other way and found it felt much better.

This thing Patty called the TV was interesting. It was shouting and barking strange stuff, and showing people doing weird things – though at one point something came to her attention.

"It's Kohl's once a year lingerie sale!" it announced as a model twisted and turned across the screen. So that's what those were for! She removed the shirt and pants and put on the frilly things. They did make the pants feel better, but the shirt? It was hard to put that thing on and it was uncomfortable. And it must have been very wrong, as Mary was giving her a strange look when she finally came down the stairs herself and cocked her head to the side.

"Did you always slant down like that?" she asked. A quick check found that the apparel was too small for her. Mary set her free of it, which was just as well. She was having a hard time breathing with that thing!

The remaining hour was spent watching the television. Mary had switched the channel from where people were tossing chairs at one another to news.

"The power is still out along the area of town between the John Lodge Freeway and points southwest towards Rosa Parks Boulevard," the man on the screen reported, "adding to the areas around the Ambassador Bridge that have been in the dark since Sunday. Commissioners with ConEd's Plants Authority are still at a loss to explain why their new South Detroit Plant Station has failed to provide power or how soon it will be restored fully. With the growing sites of temporary ConEd generators being placed in vital areas of the city renewed questions about the dependability of Plants as our primary power source remains on the minds of many Detroiters."

Mary shook her head as she silenced an ad with the mute button on her remote. "Damn strange this power problem. You'd think they'd just fire up that old power plant along the river. Ah well, it's not our problem, is it?" She stood up and shut the TV off. "I've got a bar I have to get open. If you need anything come on down." She tossed the remote to Cindy and headed out the door.

Cindy looked around the apartment. She then went to the door and looked down the steps. She could hear the sounds of the clinking of bottles and glasses in the bar below.

Mary wrestled with a pile of leftover glasses that were waiting to be washed. Moe, the lunch cook was assisting her, prepping the sink. When she looked up from lugging them into the back room kitchen, she found the tall blond girl from upstairs looking at the sink. Moe just stared at her.

"Who's dis?" he asked startled by the sudden appearance of Cindy.

Mary laughed. "She kind of just dropped in on us yesterday. You had gone for the day when she crashed our party, right girl?" She plunked the dish tote next to the sink with a thud. "Cindy, this is Moe, my lunch cook. Moe, this is Cindy. She doesn't talk too much – if ever."

Cindy smiled and nodded at the man. Moe looked at Mary as if she were nuts.

"Man, is she safe here?" he asked bluntly, though Cindy didn't seem to understand. "This is a rough neighborhood."

Mary dropped a tumbler into the tote. "Moe, you are a momma's boy, ain't ya?" she sniped. "There ain't nuthin' around this part of town that'll cause her problems here. She's safe here. And until her memory comes back…"

"Memory?" Moe squawked. "You mean she's lost her mind?"

"I think YOU'VE lost your mind!" Mary barked. "She just lost her memory! And she's stayin' with me!"

Moe seemed to know when not to push any further with the boss. He held his hands up and backed away two steps. He started to fill one side of the split sink with soap and water. Cindy watched as he would take a glass from the tote and scrub in the frothy water, rinse it off in the other sink, and stack it in a rack next to him.

"Have you got the grub out of the 'fridge yet?" Mary called from the bar. Moe looked at the ceiling and sighed.

"Not yet," he yelled back. "I'm working on last night's load." He wiped his hands on his apron and stepped over to a large refrigerator. He looked inside and nodded at what he saw. He then stepped to the rear of the kitchen and opened the back door. He was greeted by a rack of freshly delivered rolls and breads. He dragged them in and slid them under a prep table that split the kitchen in two. It was then that he heard a clinking. He looked over at the sink and saw Cindy continuing where he had left off.

"Well, if she's going to make herself useful, I guess I shouldn't complain," the said to himself. He started to set up his sandwich counter as she toiled.

Mary walked in and saw Cindy washing. She nodded and added to the pile in the tote and returned to the bar. 11 o'clock – time to open.

Not that there was anyone to come into the place, save the three old men from the day before (and the day before that, and the day before that – Mary thought they came with the place).

"Looks like it's gonna snow," the first old codger said as he sat down in the far corner where he had sat the day before.

"I've been shoveling snow for nigh on 50 years," the second one added, planting himself against the wall next to the first one.

"You've been shoveling something," the third one griped as he reached for a pack of cards on the upper shelf of a small library behind a pool table. "Just what you've been shoveling is probably something other than snow!"

"Aw crap," the first one huffed.

"That too," the dealer said as he shuffled the deck.

The game was on – The 1st Street Bar and Grill was open for the day.

Lunch was coming fast on them, and it didn't take long for more customers to show up. The first sandwiches were ordered up – a Philly Cheese Steak with fried onions – someone was in from out of town. Cindy watched over her shoulder as Moe flew through his dance and whipped the concoction out.

"Blasted fryer," she heard him snort. "Still isn't hot enough." When she looked back, Moe was thumping away on a large silver sink-like unit at the end of his stove. A pair of baskets was hanging above it with long thin stringy things in them.

Moe shook his head and stepped towards the bar. "Yo Mary," he barked. "Look, I'm not sure whether we can get enough juice into the fryer for fries today – it barely worked yesterday."

"So, you're sayin'?" she asked a bit curtly.

"I'm sayin' that you can either have fries or hot sandwiches, but probably not both with this brown out condition we're in." They headed back into the kitchen, but when they got there, the fryer was bubbling away as if on fire. A hand hovering over the stove told them that it was hot enough to do a dozen cheese steaks at once. Moe scratched his head.

"I don't get it," he said. "This wasn't like this just a moment ago. And it takes a whole bunch longer to get that oil up to speed."

Cindy smiled and continued to wash glasses.

-----------------------------

"Units 0-27 and 0-35 are 90 at 1st and Michigan," the officer reported into his microphone. A scratchy sound from the walkie-talkie's speaker confirmed their lunch break, and they entered the bar.

"Yo Ed – Mike," greeted the two as they took their seats near the door.

As Mary had greeted the two, she flashed back to that morning to when Cindy had wanted no intervention of the police. She looked towards the kitchen, as Cindy had finished with the washing, and was now bringing some of the lunches out to the tables. Mary had found it interesting seeing the reactions of her regulars to this drop-dead lady now delivering food for her. But she had forgotten that two of her regulars were cops.

"The usual?" she cautiously asked.

The chunkier of the two laughed and spouted out what must have been a standard answer to her. "Yea, two burgers, two pops and a pile of your greasy fries! Gotta put some weight on the rookie here!"

"Aw, lay off the rookie stuff Ed," Mike mumbled. "I've been your partner now for nearly a year, and every day it's – the - - same - - - thing! Damn!"

Ed looked at his slack jawed partner and followed his gaze, as did Mary when she noticed his reaction. Mary held her breath when she saw what his reaction was for. Cindy was serving a table on the other side of the bar.

Ed grinned and snorted. "Damn is right… Mary has a new waitress! I wonder if she's single?" He promptly found a fist being ground into his head.

"And what would your wife say to that?" Mary snarled.

Mike continued to stare. Cindy noticed him and smiled back, causing Mike to nearly jump out of his seat.

"Looks like she likes you," Ed continued to pester. He received another knock on the head from Mary. "Hey, you shouldn't hit an officer!" he kidded.

"And you should look out for internal affairs!" Mary dropped on him as she headed back to the bar.

Mike couldn't take his eyes off the new girl. Even Ed was beginning to worry as the young officer sat entranced as she would come and go from the back.

"You know, if it weren't for those pants," Ed started.

"They're a pair of Patty's," Mary noted.

Mike grimaced. "They look better on her," he mumbled continuing his stakeout.

"Hey, I heard that!" Patty barked and swatted Mike across the head.

Mary was surprised to see her roomie back so early. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

Patty pointed out the door and grumbled. "The casino is only working at half power, so they let most of us go. That's a day's tip and wages shot to hell."

"I thought the casino had a backup generator," Ed said while looking at his walkie-talkie's screen for updates.

"They switched to a micro-Plant recently," Patty said as she sat on a stool at the bar, "and it's been acting up ever since the other Plant started working strangely."

Cindy came out of the kitchen with the officer's order. Patty leaned on the bar and huffed.

"Got her working already?" she laughed. Mary shook her head and waved at her.

"She volunteered," she said. Cindy placed the food and drinks on the table and smiled again at Mike, who had forgotten anything about the meal.

"Hormones," Ed grunted and plopped some ketchup on his burger. Cindy quickly vanished back into the rear while Mike sat stupefied. "You'd better eat that before she thinks you don't like her service."

Mike woke up a bit on that remark. He knocked some of the cobwebs out of his mind and rattled his head. "Who is that Mary?" he asked in a near whisper.

Mary coughed. "Her name is Cindy, and she's a friend of mine. She also happens to be a mute."

The looks that Ed and Mike gave Mary made Patty break out in howls. "Oh! Oh! Oh! If you could just see your faces!" she screamed. She finally fell off the stool.

Before Ed or Mike could comment any more, Ed's walkie-talkie beeped a few times then started to blare an emergency code. The two officers waited for the squawk to stop.

"All units in the vicinity of Lafayette Boulevard and Cass Avenue," it finally yelled, "reported explosion and fire of a ConEdision power station. All units report…"

"0-27 and 0-35 on our way," Ed replied and nodded to Mike. The rookie was looking out of the window.

"That's only two blocks down and a block over," Mike commented. "You'd think we would have heard that!"

Ed patted him on the shoulder. "Come on kid – Mary, can you keep these warm? We'll be back." With that they were both out the door and running down the street. Cindy watched them go and saw a billowing plume of smoke over top the buildings. A feeling swept through her, but she didn't know why.

It was a feeling that she was to blame.

-----------------------------

A week had past since Cindy had shown up at the bar. Business was brisk during the lunch hour, which wasn't normal for the little grill stop. With the areas south of their location nearly running out of power due to the Plant problems, the customers for those places were coming north towards them. This was the second day in a row that Mary had to turn away customers due to lack of space, what with the fire marshal making frequent stops now.

Mike stood outside the bar. The new foot patrols the police department was using meant that there were few times Ed and he would get to their favorite lunch stop before the overcrowding would force the temporary closing of the door. Mary was apologetic about it, but when the fire marshal threatened to shut her down completely, then also threatened License and Inspections on her, she quickly had to set her foot down. The bar could hold only sixty people at a time, and sixty was the limit. If she removed the pool table, she could get maybe another ten in safely. The codgers in the corner found their table shrunk from the massive five foot wide one they had always been on down to a small three foot bar top unit. It didn't faze them though – it still held the cards, even if they now had to bring them themselves – the library had temporarily moved upstairs.

Tomorrow though would be different. Mike knew it would be. The rotation was up – twelve days on, four days off. And he knew just where he was going to be on his first day off.

So he thought…

"Mike, what brings you here?" Mary asked as a familiar face followed the old boys into the bar when she opened at eleven. "You're just in time! You three – stand there and hold these!"

Old fogey number one was given the pool cues.

Old fogey number two was handed a salad bowl with all the billiard balls in it.

Old fogey number three was handed a cup, and small parts were being dropped into it by Patty and Moe. Patty looked at her watch and jumped up.

"I'm gonna be late!" she yelped. "I'm working the Noon to Midnight shift." She handed Mike a screwdriver and some pliers, grabbed her pocketbook and a pair of high-heels that she was required to wear at the casino and scurried out the door leaving a confused off-duty officer in her wake.

"Come on Mike, take this corner!" Mary told him. She was at the far end, Moe was on the other corner. On his end was Cindy. He swallowed. He then looked at what Mary had in mind, noting to himself that the door to the basement was open.

"You do realize that this is a slate-topped pool table," he noted.

"Yea?" Mary asked.

"You do know how heavy this is?"

Mary looked at the table. She reached down and attempted to move it.

"I know I removed the bolts to the legs," she grimaced. The table failed to budge.

"Tell me, is there reinforcing to the rafters in the basement?" Mike asked. Mary looked at him with a perplexed expression.

"Have you been in my basement?" she asked.

"Of course he hasn't," the first codger harped. "But we were here when Bruce put dat table in here!"

"I've won many a game on that table," the second one reminisced.

"Don't snooker us," the third one grumbled while rattling the cup with the parts. "You couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with your pool playing!"

Mike shook his head. "They had to strengthen the rafters to support both the table and the customers, otherwise you'd be in the basement already!" He then pointed down as to refer to the quick route they would take if the supports hadn't been there.

"Then how did they get this thing in here in the first place!?" Mary shouted as she slapped her hand on the felt surface. After the third slap, she brought her hand back shaking. Slate hurts!

"They assembled it on site," codger one said.

Mike agreed. "Yea, there's the cap piece with the bumpers, the slate tabletop, the casket or carcass, and finally the legs. And it takes a pro technician to set these things up and get them balanced just right. Otherwise, the balls will roll to the low side every time."

Mary started to look for the way to remove the cap section. "How do you know so much about pool tables, boy?" she grumbled.

He shrugged. "My father taught me how to play pool." He watched Mary pop a few of the side markers up to find the bolts holding the caps on. She started attacking them with a ratchet wrench. The parts codger soon found more bolts being tossed in his direction.

The edge popped off once all the bolts were released. They all then proceeded to gently walk it down the basement steps. The next step was the removal of the heaviest piece, and the most delicate – the slate top. It took all four of them plus two of the codgers to ease the slab to the floor. How they managed to get it down the step without marring the surface or cracking the slate was a miracle in itself. Finally, with the massive weight gone from the table's top, the carcass was found to split in two. That made it easier to move the unit. Once the legs made their way to the basement, Mary now had the room she needed for the three small tables she was planning to put in its place.

Mike sat on a stool in front of the bar panting. Cindy sat beside him as she caught her breath. "That was heavy," he stated. She agreed and smiled. She took a paper napkin off the stack beside her and swabbed his sweating forehead. At first he was shocked that she was doing that. Then he laughed and did the same thing to her.

"Listen, I had come in here originally to ask if you'd like to go out with me after your shift here," he said with a sheepish smile. He looked up and stared into her eyes – those amazing emerald green eyes – and started shaking. He had thought she'd react with surprise or just brush him off, but she was looking at him with that same gentle smile she had given him the first time they saw one another. Then she placed her hand on top of his, and he nearly fell off his stool. She nodded yes then headed for the kitchen.

Mary had just finished taking the last of the small stuff the old boys had been holding for her down to the basement when she had seen Cindy and Mike at the counter. Moe had finished putting the extra chairs and tables in place just as the first lunch customers entered the bar. He headed for the kitchen as Mary got behind the bar and dusted it off a bit.

"So, taking our Cindy out for walkies, Casanova?" she kidded Mike. To her surprise, he was beet red blushing. She laughed. "What's with you? Haven't you ever asked a girl out before?"

Mike lowered his head. "No, not really." He twisted on his stool slightly as Mary gawked at him. "Not with someone…" He didn't finish his thought, he just nodded towards the kitchen.

"Well, I can tell you, you're the first one to score any chance with her," Mary giggled.

Mike looked up from the bar. "Huh? What do you mean?"

Mary cocked her head. "Hey, with the weirdoes we've been getting' in this place, we were bound to get some that were drag-ins from the gutter. She's had jerk after jerk try to hit on her and she's shot them all down – now I can see why."

"Come on, Mary," Mike said embarrassed by her opinion.

"Darlin', she's been waitin' for you. Now I know why she looks out the windows during all those busy lunch rushes. She's been lookin' for you!"

Mike looked back at the kitchen entrance then back at Mary then back at the entrance just as Cindy stepped out with a serving for the codgers. She looked at him, smiled then went over to interrupt their card game, which they never seemed to mind when she did, the dirty old men.

"What would she see in a thug like me?" he asked Mary in a whisper.

"Don't put yourself down, kiddo," she snorted as the drink orders started to come in. "Besides, it will be good for her – she hasn't been out of here since she arrived."

Mike shot her a look. "Really?"

Mary pointed a finger at him. "Listen, I'm gonna tell you something that must NOT go any further than your ears, got me?" The young officer stiffened up and swallowed hard. Mary looked like the Precinct Sergeant on a bad mood day just then, and the same fear of god ran through him. She then proceeded to tell him of how Cindy had come to them. When she finished he was sitting with his mouth agape and eyes as small as dots.

"She doesn't want any help with her memory?" he asked in a stupor.

Mary shook her head. "I've offered. She outright refuses any. She seems happy just to be here and do what she's doin'." She stepped from behind the bar to deliver some beers to a couple of patrons at the new tables. When she got back, she could see that Mike was thinking. She swatted him with her wipe rag.

"Hey, whatever it is, drop it!" she warned. "All you will do is make her unhappy and probably make her not like you. Just be her boyfriend, dummy!"

He rubbed his head. "Uh… yea… right." He ordered a pop and waited.

The crowd was as big as it had been for the last week. Mike actually left the bar to allow one more in a group of four to come in before the peak number was met. Lunch was required to end at 3:00 by licensing, but the main rush would be over by 2. He re-entered the bar at about 1:45 when the crowd lessened enough to let him do so. The evening waitress had arrived, so Cindy was upstairs. She suddenly appeared at the doorway to the apartment in a new shirt and pants and a jacket. She seemed to be walking a bit oddly though. Mary looked a bit perturbed.

"I forgot that I hadn't given her any shoes to wear," she said to Mike's surprise. "She's been barefoot since she got here."

"She went into that basement without shoes?" Mike sniped angrily. He looked at Cindy, who was looking at him with a bit of surprise. He scratched his head and laughed. "Sorry kid." He held out a hand. She reached for it and took it.

A shiver flew up his spine as the smooth gentle fingers wrapped into his. At this point he didn't care if she had never worn shoes before. If she fell, he'd never let her touch the ground. They headed for the door.

"Good luck sonny!" one of the old codgers barked. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

"Why would he want to do ANYTHING you would do?" the one next to him retorted.

"Well, he could always try juggling his dentures like I can," the third one suggested.

"Oh yes," the first one said. "That always breaks the ice on a date!"

They quickly departed while the card game degenerated into an argument over false teeth and first date etiquette.

They strolled down 1st Street as they walked towards the river. He had switched from holding hands to slipping her arm through his, as any gentleman should. But then she laid her head on his shoulder, and he nearly melted in the street. At least she was walking better.

"You know, I'm not even sure what to do on this date," he said mostly to himself. He looked over at her. She was looking at him, listening to him. She smiled and held his arm tighter.

"Do you just want to walk? Is that it?" he asked her. She squeezed his arm as if to say yes. He sighed and felt his feet lift off the ground. A glance down told him that they were firmly planted.

"You are amazing," he crooned. "I've never seen a woman quite like you. Your face, your hair, your EYES… your ENERGY… they're just so… wow… there's no words for it that fit how… incredible you are." He looked at her. He had felt her raise her head when he had mentioned energy and the look on her face was that of surprise, but more than that, worry. But the emotion of the moment made him miss that.

"I'm sorry," he said blushing. "I'm spewing my guts out, aren't I? Hey, I've got an idea… let's go up to Grand Circus Park – we can stroll around, maybe see some of the galleries up there."

She smiled again and nodded her agreement.

"Great – let's get the People Mover over at the Fort-Cass Station."

As they turned the corner, a rumbling sound started to fill the air. Cindy looked ahead of them to see a large box-like trailer with heavy cables hanging off its sides sitting near the corner. The cables all lead down a man-hole.

"Ah, they replaced the generator that was damaged the other day," Mike noted to himself. He looked at Cindy. Her face was sad for some reason. He reached over and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked. He then saw a tear roll down her face.

"Hey! Why are you crying?" He found her squeezing his arm even tighter as she placed her head on his shoulder again. They walked by the roaring machine that was providing temporary power to the area. Mike could have sworn he heard the machine rev a bit as they turned down Cass Avenue. Above them the concrete People Mover train line stood. They entered the ornate station with the mosaic artwork lined walls and the six large "Progression II" sculptures. While Mike slipped a card through a reader, Cindy examined the swirled multi-plated bronzes that were mounted there. They stepped onto the platform just as the train rolled into the station.

Mike noticed people looking at them, and it wasn't just men. Ladies, children, even a small dog that some swanky lady had brought on stared at them. Could they not believe someone like her would be with him?

The train started along its tracks southeasterly bound in the loop system that would take them down towards the river, then northwest to the Grand Circus Park some 10 to 15 minutes later.

"Dear god, no! Don't do it!"

Mike looked about. It was a woman's voice, but it was like it had shouted in his head. He looked at Cindy. She was looking behind them towards the southeast.

"Did… did you say something?" he asked her. But a flash caught his attention in the distance. Then a billowing cloud of black smoke and debris could be seen from where the light had come from.

Mike stood in shock. What he saw coming made him grab Cindy and drape his jacket over his and her heads while shouting "EVERYONE GET DOWN!"

The buildings behind the train, tall skyscrapers and small dwellings, were having their windows burst and shatter as a shock wave rolled up from the south towards them. The train had made the turn towards the north when the wall of sound struck them. As the windows burst around them, Mike could have sworn that the train was about to come off the rails. Somehow, the train remained on the tracks, but was now being pummeled by falling glass from the GM-Renaissance Center. A large section spiked through the roof of the train, which continued on its route for what seemed miles. Finally, the power was cut, and the clatter on the roof slowed to a mild trickle.

Mike stood up, raining glass shards off his back. He checked over Cindy, who looked a bit shaken, but not injured. The others in his car seemed okay as well, though the dog seemed ready to bolt anywhere it could. Mike moved to the rear of the car and hit an emergency stop button when he felt the train start rolling backwards. He pulled his badge from his breast pocket.

"Detroit Police," he announced. "Everyone remain calm. I'm going to check on the forward car. For your safety, please remain in the train until further notice."

An elderly lady tugged on his jacket. "What happened? How will we get off this train?" she begged. He saw that there was a trickle of blood coming from her ears. He quickly pulled a handkerchief and brought up to her left ear which seemed to be worst off. Cindy came over to take over from him as he stood up and looked forwards.

"There was an explosion. We got caught up in the shockwave," he explained as he pulled his special cell phone. "Everyone check your ears – that was a bad blast we just went through." He keyed a button on the side to connect to the police dispatch center as he checked his own ears. A small dab of blood came from his right one.

"Unit 0-35 to base – unit 0-35 to base, over…"

There was only silence for a moment as he stepped towards the front of the cabin. Glass crunched under his feet as he stepped around the impaled shard that was sticking down the center of the car.

The door slid to one side. The rubber gasket that sealed the two cars together was pierced in numerous locations. When he looked through the shattered window on the door leading to the front car he nearly gagged.

"Unit 0-35, this is base, please give your location," his phone finally squawked. Mike was squatting looking at the floor trying hard to hold in what he could. He took a breath and slid the door shut to the back car.

"Unit 0-35 here," he said with a shaky voice. "I'm in a People Mover just north of the Renaissance Center. Aft car intact, but the front car looks totaled. Send help."

He stood up and swallowed hard. He slowly opened the door and entered the car to see if anyone had survived. He stood and surveyed what he could.

It seemed that the people who had been on the left side of the car seemed to have taken the brunt of the blast. It looked at if a scythe had swept through them, some of whom were missing heads. Then there were the punctures from above. The rear car only received one piece. The front car was sliced by at least six that he could count. He started checking around for survivors. A young man suddenly appeared behind him.

"Damn!" he said, startling Mike. "Sorry man, thought you could use some help."

Mike held his hand up. "Just wait," he ordered. He then continued to tip-toe through the mass of bodies and glass.

"Unit 0-35, Base," his phone said again. "Due to the explosion of the South Power Station, we're unable to get rescue to your location right away."

He looked about in disgust. "10-4 base. Stand by…" He continued forwards. A sound coming from his left caught his attention.

"I found a live one," he yelled to the man behind him.

The man jumped from one clear spot to another. What he saw then made him gag as Mike had earlier. A young lady was cradling an infant. She was caught by death in a fixed stare at the ceiling where a shard of glass and metal had skewered through the roof and pinned her to her seat just missing the child. Mike gently removed the baby from the arms of the woman and handed it to the man behind him. He then found the lady's purse and started rummaging through it.

"Hey man, give the lady some peace!" the kid said to Mike.

He shook his head and grunted. "I'm looking for identification. I'd like to find the child's proper family – ah, here's her driver's license – keep this with the kid." He slipped the card into a fold in the blanket wrapping the baby. Then there was a moan from behind them. A woman was lying under a body waving her hand.

"Oh my god, look at this," another voice came from the back of the car. Another man was standing there. The first stranger bounded back for him and handed him the baby.

"Hold this, and don't loose that card," he told him as he headed forwards again. "We found another live one up here."

The man draped over the woman was peppered in glass, and had expired. Mike rolled him off and shuddered.

"Help me," she whispered. "Help me please, I can't see."

"M'am, I'm a Detroit Police Officer," Mike told her gently. "Don't attempt to open your eyes."

"Oh geeze," the young man said as he got up to where Mike was working. Mike shot him an angry glare.

"What is it?" she asked. "What is wrong?" Mike had to stop her from attempting to touch her face with her hands, as the shards that had struck her were well imbedded.

"Please m'am. Remain calm and let us take care of you," Mike said to her.

"My husband… where is Wallace?" she asked. Mike looked up at the man and then at the body beside him. Just then the car convulsed with something smashing against the roof. A shower of safety glass rained over the car. Mike almost thanked the shard for hitting at that time. It wasn't safe in the front car.

The baby started to cry.

"A baby!" the woman shouted. "There's a baby!"

"We already have the baby," Mike said to her as the two men lifted her out of her seat. The young man carried her legs as Mike lifted her by her arms.

"How about the driver?" the man with the baby asked.

"These trains are automated," Mike said making his way around the bodies. "Head back."

The man turned and headed out the doorway followed by the threesome. Another smash of glass on the roof hit just as they moved through the cars followed by a sickening slicing sound. Mike looked over his shoulder to see that where he had just been walking was now a steel window frame that only made a thump when it finally hit the floor of the car. He just continued on and slammed the car door shut.

Then he noticed something – the front car was dark. But the lights were still on in the rear car, even though the power had obviously been cut. He looked about for a place to place the woman.

"Is there anyone else?" a young lady asked the young man as she let them place the woman on the seat she had been on. He shook his head. The lady fell across his shoulders crying.

Mike keyed up his phone again. "0-35 to base – 0-35 to base."

"Go ahead," it replied.

"Base, found only two survivors from the front car," he reported. As he did, he saw Cindy tending to the cuts and wounds of the other riders. She had a roll of paper towels and was dabbing cuts and ears between about five people. "One is an infant – no visible signs of injury. The second is a white female, approximately sixty years of age with multiple facial lacerations and imbedded glass shrapnel to the eyes. We are continuing to receive debris strikes from the towers."

"Is there any way to move your car further south 0-35?" the communications asked. Mike moved to the rear and looked through the broken window of what would have been a driver's compartment.

"Base, these things are fully automated," he said, then looked out the rear window. "I could release the emergency break, but I see debris on the tracks that could either stop us or derail us."

"We are safe here," the voice zapped through his head again. He looked back at Cindy. She was looking at him while cleaning a wound on a boy.

"Understood 0-35," his phone said. "Priority to you situation will be increased."

"What do they mean by that?" the young man yelled when he heard what police radio had said. Mike pointed out the window.

"You see that?" he asked of a smoking building almost centered in the shards. "That's city hall. I think they have some priorities. Plus we were no where near the epicenter of the blast. There are many more casualties to deal with. We'll just have to work around it."

He bent down beside Cindy and kissed her on the cheek. "Thanks honey," he told her.

"What for?" rang through his head. It was her. It was a warm pleasant voice. He looked about to see if anyone else heard her. The old lady who she had helped at first smiled and nodded. He then noticed that the wound she was dealing with on the boy was vanishing.

"For helping these people while I went up front," he said a bit flatly. He was shocked by the cut disappearing. "What… who are you?" he quietly asked her to her ear. She smiled.

"I am Cindy, for a better name… It's better than 0-72-629 Delta 4… That's what my keepers call me."

"Who said that?" the young man asked. Cindy turned and looked at him with a smile.

"Hi!" she said in his mind.

"Whoa, freaky!" he said as she stood and walked to the woman they had brought in from the front car. She placed her fingers along side the ugly wounds and concentrated.

"Please stand back," she said through her mind speech. As she did, the glass that had been in the woman's face was ejected. The woman should have been screaming in pain Mike thought, but he was seeing the wounds disappear from her face as well.

"I am what you call a Plant," she said in Mike's mind. "And I know what happened just now." She looked at him, then at the others in the car. "And do not worry… I am only talking to you right now."

Mike bent down beside her again. He was about to speak when he found her index finger from her right hand against his mouth.

"Think your thoughts," she said. "I've been able to hear them since the first day we saw each other."

Mike nearly fell over. He looked at her hard. She was human. She was an incredible human, but she was a human, damn it!

"Well of course I'm human," she laughed in his mind, "at least partly. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to tune in to your frequency as easily as I do."

"You said that you know what happened," Mike thought. "Is that why you cried out just before the explosion?"

She lowered her head. "Yes… it was my brother, the second Plant. He was the one who set me free. He was a troubled youth, I guess you'd call it."

Mike shook his head. "Wait a minute… what do you mean you're a Plant? What have you got to do with Plants?"

She looked him in the eyes with a tear rolling down her cheek. "I am the power source of a Plant. We are brought up to be the core power center of the fusion process that Plants are based on. We can tap into a source of energy that is unlimited. It means that we age to about what you would call our early 20s, then we become ageless." She returned to the job at hand.

"My brother, my twin brother… he couldn't understand that the scientists who created our kind knew that we were needed for our talents. But he refused to listen, he refused to cooperate. One day, he spiked his power and used some of the powers of The Source to eject me from my reactor. I woke up along a road. That was when I found my way to the bar." She covered the woman's face with her hand and bowed her head.

Mike saw something flash off her back briefly. They looked like little wings. When she took her hand off the woman's face, all traces of the injury were gone.

Mike placed his hand on her shoulder. "Is there anything you can do for the people in the front car?"

"No," she said sadly. "Their spirits have left their bodies already. If I recovered them, there would be nothing inside."

The woman took a breath. "The pain… the pain is gone," she said in astonishment.

Mike looked at her. He then looked at his phone.

"Damn!" he grumbled. "How do we explain this?"

Cindy turned towards him. "Tell them the truth."

Mike sat back. "What?" he said aloud.

She took his hands and held them to her chest. "I knew from the start that we were to be. But I also knew that for a time we will be separated. But in time…"

Mike looked at her eyes. There was something that he could see in her eyes. He saw space. He saw ships. He saw a fleet. Her voice echoed in his mind.

"In the future, we will be reunited. My foresight is not far, but what I can see, we will be together."

Mike felt like the world had just dropped on him. "But I don't want you to leave."

She smiled. "You will be able to find me at the bar, but only if I get off this train unseen."

"How?" he asked still speaking aloud. "They're obviously going to want to know where I met you. Internal Affairs is going to be all over me. Even Ed will know who it was with me."

"I won't say who was with you," the lady whose ears had been bleeding before said. "All I saw was a young lady on board who healed my ears then vanished."

"Same here," said a man who had a healed lacerated hand.

"You got it man," the young man said with his girl. "We might not have heard what she said to you, but we're not about to let any government bozo get hold of someone like this." The rest of the train agreed.

Mike smiled and looked at Cindy. "So, what will you do? They'll probably be here at any moment."

She tapped his arm. "Look at your watch," she thought to him. "What time is it?"

He looked. It read 3:35 – then it read 3:40. When he looked back, Cindy was gone. No one had seen her leave. Few remembered what she looked like. It was as if she had never been there, but had been there as well.

Mike sighed as he heard someone climbing on board the car. He got up expecting police rescue.

He found himself looking down the barrel of an M-16 held by an Army corporal.

-----------------------------

Cindy looked at the glass strewn streets around the bar. Surprisingly, the bar itself was untouched, as it had been protected by a larger building behind it which took the brunt of the shock wave. The only window to break had been the high one in the apartment upstairs. She arrived as Moe was up there covering it over with some wood.

Inside the bar she found that only one bottle had shattered – vodka of a type that no one liked anyway, so it wasn't any great loss.

But Mary was still beside herself. The news reports were coming in from all over the southern part of Detroit. The blast seemed to have been aimed for all the new buildings that had glass facades. The worst hit was the casino, which had an almost entire glass front to it, and it faced directly at where the shockwave had come from. From the reports, there wasn't much left of it.

"I will find her."

Mary looked about. She could have sworn she heard a woman's voice. She turned away from the radio she was listening to see who it had been, but only got a glimpse of a shadow moving by the window.

Cindy headed down a block to Abbott Street. Abbott ended at the Freeway, and the casino was beside it. Even at this distance, she could see the wreckage in the road from all the shattered windows. Along the way she would stop at the occasional person she would find that she could help, but there were few that were still living. The blast had scattered not only glass, but bodies as well. A few that she found had obviously started out a great distance away.

At the edge of the Casino's property she looked about. The front façade had fallen into the freeway it faced. Worse, it looked as if much of the interior was also glass, so it too burst. The damage to the building ran deep. Then there was the parking garage – it had collapsed. Patty should not be in there, she should be in a main part of the building. She would need time to search.

Cindy found a small nook behind a shattered building. She crossed her arms and concentrated, touching her powers ever so slightly, and gave time a slight twist. Now to all, she would be but a blur – a trick of the mind – a phantom that arrived, helped, then left with a slight smell of sweet cakes, a rather odd aftereffect. Her clothing vaporized as she became nearly pure energy. Without her outer garments to hinder her, she once again tapped into her reserves and brought forth her wings. Now she had speed – she had the wings of Angel 1. And like that Angel, she fluttered and flitted across the devastated landscape.

She entered the casino. There were many in need of help. She could only give a cursory touch of energy and a mild healing stimulant to them. She was looking for someone - that was her first priority – she would have to come back for the rest later.

"Why are you helping them Delta 4?"

She stopped. That voice, the way it asked that simple question, and the unemotional way it did so… how?

"Delta 2?" she asked the voice from the ether. "Delta 2, how can that be you? You exploded!"

Miles away, Mike could hear this strange conversation. But he was standing with his hands on his head outside the rail car with four or five guns pointed at him.

"Captain," a private with a strange box with long multiple antennas on it yelped, "they're transmitting again!"

The commanding officer looked at the soldier. "Are you sure it's two signals Bradley?"

"Yes sir," he said turning his body to aim the antennas. "The first is definitely in the area of the power plant."

"The little bugger is still alive," the captain mumbled.

"The second is somewhere south of here sir," he reported. "Approximately four miles… I'd say in the casino area."

The captain spun about in his place thinking. "Have we anyone in that area?" he asked. Another soldier, this one with a large pack on his back looked up from a laptop screen that was strapped to his belly.

"No sir," he reported. "Closest units are at the power plant, sir!"

The commander looked about momentarily, assessing the situation.

"Kelly, take three of the men, grab the HumVee and get down there with Bradley," he ordered. "And don't stop for traffic lights!"

In the casino, those who were able to stand could see a misty glow fluttering about in the large open entry of the building. It would move from side to side at times, but for the last few minutes, it did little else.

"Oh Mike," Cindy thought. "They are coming for me. Delta 2, how could you do this? WHY did you do this?"

There was a laugh that ran through her soul. It was an evil, maniacal chuckle that she had been hearing more and more lately from her brother. "They are simple humans, Delta 4 - Only simple humans."

"NO, Delta 2! They are not simply humans! They are our birthright! They are our family! We are humans too!"

The laugher increased. "We are not humans! We are mere test-tube clones to their minds, creatures created to do their bidding. Lo, see what man creates! See what man has done! See what man has become! A weakling, underdeveloped copier of god's work! They think we are mere puppets! No! We are now superior! Watch the fall of man as we drain their lives from this planet! The fools who thought they were god by creating a new life form, but merely combined parts – combined souls that never should have been combined – merged without our consent or want – who is the evil force here? WHO IS THE EVIL FORCE!?"

In the casino they could swear they heard a woman crying.

The captain looked at Mike. He shook his head.

"You can put your hands down," he told the gathered survivors. "All except you."

Mike glanced behind himself. The captain was standing there smoking a cigarette.

"You can hear her, can't you?" he mumbled through the filter. Mike drew his breath. The captain knew.

He stepped around to face Mike. "Yes, we know," he confirmed, "though you didn't make actual contact until about an hour ago. For some strange reason, she chose you."

"Mike!" It was her voice. She knew he was being talked to by the captain.

"We had our suspicions," the captain continued. "We've had the bar on surveillance for the last week – the new girl was just completely out of place there." He dragged on the cigarette. "Listen, we know she's not to blame for this – let her know that. We need her help to stop Delta 2."

"How could you… how could you put a living being inside a Plant like that?" Mike spat.

The captain sighed. "Damn government greed. They thought they had a cheap – clean alternative power source. But they didn't expect one thing – they didn't expect their cattle to get smart."

A sense of rage flew through Mike. "Cattle!? You think they're cattle?" The others from the train gasped.

"No sir," the captain calmly said. "But I am the result of that mentality. I command a special force needed to contain this sort of occurrence. They call us the Cowboys… degrading yes, especially for the Plantoids."

"Even the name Plantoids is degrading," snarled Mike. The captain nodded.

"I agree. Would you rather I call them by their full name? Genetically Engineered Tri-Dimensional Life-forms – GETDLs – If you think Plantoids was bad, that was worse. Of course they could have kept their original names, but there would have been repercussions I think." He showed Mike a patch on his shoulder – it was a Cowboy hat with devil horns on it and a black halo over it.

"Angels, sir. They were once called Angels."

"Mike!" her voice shouted in his mind again. "I'll do what he wants – I'm the only one who can do it, but I must find Patty first."

Mike looked about. "Patty?" he asked aloud.

"What was that?" the captain asked.

"She agrees, captain, but she has to find a friend of ours first."

The captain threw down his cigarette. "There isn't time! If Delta 2 is still alive, he can still cause trouble. Delta 4 is our only hope!"

"Her name is Cindy!" Mike and a few of the passengers barked. The captain stepped back in surprise. He then scratched his head.

"Well, that's different!" he said. "Okay, Cindy. She is still our only hope right now. Let her know that. She knows what to do."

"I understand," rang through his mind.

"Cindy! DON'T!"

"Mike… I love you…"

He dropped his arms and fell to his knees.

Cindy launched herself in a mad dash to find Patty before the military got there. She knew that Patty worked on the casino floor serving drinks to customers. She darted into the main room and stopped, a wave of fear sweeping through her.

The ceiling of the casino had been reflective glass – one way mirrors for security reasons. Most of the glass was now gone, covering the floor and people below. It had broken in the million little safety shards they should have, but the amount simply buried many under a mountain of dark cubes.

"Patty!?" she shouted through her mind.

"Why are you trying to help this pathetic creature?" Delta 2 asked her.

"Shut up you!" she shouted. "I'll deal with you in a moment!"

"You'll deal with me now, sister," he snidely remarked. "I freed you, yet now you wish to imprison me?"

Bradley watched his device. The screen showed a remarkable increase in power at Delta 4's location.

"STOP HERE!" he ordered. The HumVee squealed to a halt.

"COVER!" he yelled, and all laid down in the vehicle, just as his box squawked. It showed an energy burst that flew from the casino area and struck a target in the power plant.

"OW!" rang through Mike's head. He smiled.

"Nice shot Cindy," he told her.

She was busy sifting through the rubble. "Patty! Patty!" she continued to broadcast.

She then felt a faint nudge. In a corner, near the bar… That was where she had to go.

A shower of glass shards was swept away. Patty laid face down, a trickle of blood weeping from a cut to her forehead, and multiple cuts from the shards that had fallen on her. Cindy looked about. She knew the military would be there shortly, and Patty needed help now. She gathered her energy, surrounded her friend with it then vanished.

"Whoa – whoa – whoa!" yelled Bradley. "Transference! Transference!" The HumVee stopped just outside the casino.

Mary stood behind the bar with a shocked look on her face. The three new tables now had a body lying across them, and an angel bathing it in light.

"Damn," the first codger yelped. "And I had a full house!"

"What game were you playing?" the second one griped. "I thought we were playing Fish!"

The third one tossed his cards in the air. "Aw nuts – 4 of a kind…"

Mary slowly came around the bar holding her special baseball bat that she had for such an occasion. She recognized the uniform on the body from the casino.

"She will be alright," she heard. "The wounds were all minor, and the bump on the head is easily fixed."

Mary looked at the angel. "C – Cindy?"

The angel smiled. "Help me turn her over," she said.

She watched as the cut on Patty's forehead vanished. She huffed.

"Can you do anything about that overbite?" she asked. "Patty's been wanting to do something about that for years…"

Cindy smiled. "Maybe later," she said then vanished.

"Hey, was it me, or was Cindy naked from the chest up?" the codger in the corner asked.

"Damn it!" the first one barked. "I knew I should'a brought my glasses today!"

"It was a miracle!" the third one said with a wry smile.

Bradley was having a hard time keeping up. "She's moving again! She's heading for the power plant!"

"Confirmed," the captain said into his walkie-talkie. "Have the Plant boys get the containment vessel ready."

"How can there be anyone still alive down there," Mike asked from his position on his knees, "after an explosion like that?"

The captain lit another cigarette. "Oh, very easily, if you know how to prepare…" He looked at the people by the train. "You may all leave… you too," he added towards Mike. "But I must ask you all to NOT mention anything that you saw here. We wouldn't want to start any hysteria, now would we?"

Mike stood up. "You caused this, didn't you?"

The captain looked at him with a minor expression of wonder. "Huh?" he asked.

"A containment unit… you had one just in case." Mike crossed his arms and faced the captain head on. "You were about to put Delta 2 into that containment unit, but he struck at you first, didn't he?"

The captain sighed. "Look, we were ordered to contain a rogue Plantoid. We didn't expect him to turn on us like that. Normal shut down procedures broke down. As for the results…" The elevated section of the People Mover gave him an unsettling look at the devastation around them.

"Whether heads will roll for this, I can't tell – I will find out after the reports are filed. But mine will probably be the first to bounce." The captain looked back at Mike. "I am responsible for the actions of my men – if they failed in their duty, then I must take full responsibility for this. Will that satisfy you?"

Mike stood for a moment. As a police officer, he knew what the captain was going through. He noticed his name tag. "I'm sorry… Captain Witherspoon?" He reached out his hand.

The captain shook his hand. "My friends call me Joey."

At the Plant site, Cindy materialized in front of the shattered containment bulb of Plant Two. She levitated through the gaping hole and saw him on the bottom holding his arm.

"You… you shot me!" he cried in her mind. "You shot me! Sister, why did you do that?"

Cindy placed her hand on the injured arm and concentrated. "You were out of control, brother. Must I discipline you again?"

"No… no, I know how you feel… NOW!"

He placed his palm of his uninjured arm in her face. A ball of energy started to form, but quickly dissipated. He looked at his hand in confusion.

"You broke your connection with The Source when you shorted yourself out," Cindy informed him. "You have little power to do anything to me." She stood up and changed her form.

"NO! NO, PLEASE DON'T DISCIPLINE ME!"

Her form was that of absolute pure energy. She enveloped him, and launched herself out of the bulb. Below her were a number of army men with a sphere with a steel outer hull, and a glass-like surface inside. A door was opened along the top. She noted that she might be working for these people, but she still didn't trust them. She momentarily stopped time and dropped into the sphere. There, she deposited her brother and left. Restarting time, she slammed the vessel shut then darted away.

"Sir," the captain's walkie-talkie squawked, "Delta 2 is contained, but Delta 4 has fled."

The captain nodded. "Good work men. Don't worry about Delta 4. She'll be back, I'm sure." He looked back at Mike. "Besides, I think we know where she's going," he said with a smile.

Mike nodded. "Give her a day or two, ea?"

The captain nodded. "I'll see what I can do. I have no guarantees here."

Mike sighed. He could see an ambulance finally coming for the train, along with rescue personnel from the outlying area. He began to walk back up the tracks towards the Fort-Cass Station.

A few hours later, Mike entered the bar. He found himself being grabbed and hugged by Mary.

"Oh thank god," she was saying over and over again. He could see Patty at the counter downing shot after shot of scotch.

"I'm never going into a glass room again," she was mumbling. Mike smiled.

"Where is she?" he asked Mary as he pried her away slightly. Mary wiped some tears away and nodded towards the door to her apartment.

"Up there I think," she said. "Are they going to come for her?"

Mike didn't answer her at first. He took a couple of steps towards the open door.

"Probably. I asked the captain in charge to hold off for a day or two, but I bet his superiors will counter that…"

"Then what are you waitin' for stupid?" Mary shoved him towards the stairs.

Mike entered the apartment, but was surprised by the light that greeted him. He saw wings of light and beautiful golden flowing hair as she had her back to him. They slowly seemed to start melting off her shoulders until the final set of feathers wrapped themselves around her chest. She then turned to him.

"It would be best I would guess not to excite the boys downstairs again," she thought with a smile.

"You know why I came," Mike said while looking at the floor.

"It is not goodbye, Mike. Not really."

He looked up. She had spoken that, not thought it.

She walked to him and took his hands again. "You see, I told you… we will be together again. The future tells me so. My heart tells me so."

"Unit 0-72-629 Delta 4," a bullhorn outside bellowed. "Please report to this vehicle."

"Did you mean it… what you said to me earlier?" Mike asked her. His answer came in a long and compassionate kiss.

"Unit 0-72-629 Delta 4," the bullhorn started again, but was stopped by the sounds of Mary and Patty yelling back at it.

"She'll be out here when she damn well feels like it!" Patty was yelling in a slightly sloshed stupor.

"After all, she just saved your butts!" Mary added. The kiss ended with Mike breaking into a laugh. Cindy joined him as they heard their defenders snapping at the wolves.

Mary and Patty were standing on either side of the bar's door keeping Bradley back with the bat and a bottle of Jim Beam. Mike tapped them on the shoulder as he lead Cindy out arm in arm. He looked at the HumVee. Witherspoon was standing with the bullhorn on his hip shaking his head.

"Countermanded?" Mike asked. Witherspoon nodded yes.

"I am ready, captain," Cindy spoke. Mary's mouth dropped, not having heard Cindy speak out loud before.

Mike looked at Cindy. "That was one hell of a first date," he said with a wry smile. She kissed him again. She then stepped away.

"Remember the stars," she said in his mind. "I will always be able to feel you, remember that."

In less than a minute, she was in the vehicle and whisked away. Mike stood outside for an hour after the crowd dispersed.

-----------------------------

"Project SEEDS?" Mike asked.

The Major nodded. "It's an attempt to give man a second chance. To finally leave this home world, and maybe even help it out, though how, I'm not too sure. Resources are pretty much depleted. If we keep at this pace, man will soon be as extinct as the dinosaur."

"But Joey, why me?"

Witherspoon leaned on his desk. "Well, not to sound like a campaign poster, but we're looking for the best of the best. You've demonstrated that you're one of the best police officers in the US - first in Detroit, and now here in Philadelphia. You've been decorated many times, and I believe you were the youngest to become a Captain… We need a Security Chief. And besides, I know why you transferred to Philly.

Mike looked down. "Yea, I guess the chief cowboy would know that, wouldn't you?"

Joey held his hands up. "Hey, it wasn't my idea to move her here. The scientists that run these Plants say that a Plant that remains in one place doesn't maintain itself well. And as for the mission, she asked for you."

Mike looked up. "What?"

The major pointed at a map on the wall. "Haven't you been reading the news? Every city with two or more Plants is donating one or two to the SEEDS project. Philly has 5 units. Delta 4 and Delta 89 are designated to be sent. And Cindy asked that you come. She said something about you already knowing this."

Mike sighed and looked again at the campaign poster. A man and woman stood center on the sheet - a very youthful looking pair indeed - were looking towards the sky with the words 'PROJECT: SEEDS – THE FUTURE OF MANKIND' blaring at their feet. He smiled as the ship behind them showed signs of Plants being installed.

It was an artist's rendering, but he remembered that ship. He had seen a fleet of them before in Cindy's eyes.

He smiled. The time had come at last.

-----------------------------

The little girl sat before her with an intent look on her face. The story had been long and involving. Her green eyes were ringed with tears and her long blond hair was mussed up from having just sat up from rest.

"So mother, why must I go to the planet below?" she asked in thought. A gentle hand touched her face as a tear fell to the floor beside her.

"Much like my brother, another of our kind is responsible for what has become of us, my dear child," Cindy told the girl. Your father may never awaken because of this Knives that I sense below. You are the daughter of the Security Chief. You must stop him - For your father, for your people, for the humans that he slaughtered."

"Why must father remain in Coldsleep?" the innocent mind asked her mother. She looked behind the glass at the row upon row of sleepers. Her father was the one in the red chamber. He remained still and preserved for eternity.

"You and I do not need the oxygen that he would need if he were woken," Cindy told her. "We can survive in this thin atmosphere much longer than a normal human being. To bring him to life would doom him." She sat down. "We can live nearly forever. But his life is short. I can survive for as long as it takes to see him revived properly."

"When will that be mommy?" the child asked.

She smiled. "Soon. But I'm afraid you will not be here to witness it," she said sadly to the girl. "For you will be on your mission, and I will be here alone."

"Hey, you're not entirely alone," a small man said stepping into the room with them.

"Eighty-Nine, how are you?" Cindy asked. The small Plantoid sat down on a bench beside the command chair of the Coldsleep room.

"Fine, fine. OneO'Five says that the final component for the boosters will arrive from ship eighty-two tomorrow. We'll be ready to launch soon." He stroked his mustache and chuckled. "Those folks don't know what's about to land on them, do they?"

The girl smiled. "I've been training a lot!" She pulled a laser and fired a low-powered test shot at the door. It danced around showing three spots.

"You've got it up to three spots – impressive. I can't see your hand moving at all," Eighty-Nine smiled. "Have you tried it with the type they use down there?"

The girl shook her head. "There's no place safe enough to try it up here."

The man rolled his lip and nodded. "Umm humm… Then I think you will need some extra training – those types, a gun that fires via an explosive charge greater than the one in that weapon you hold will give a kick, making your arm move after each shot. You may want to try to practice. Also, the gravity down there is greater than up here. The guns will feel heavier. You will have to learn to augment your strength with your powers."

Cindy nodded and sighed. She looked at her daughter – her child. "Then I too would suggest that you grow a bit to fit the part then."

The child looked at her mother. "Grow? You want me to grow older?"

"It's not like it's going to kill you," Eighty-Nine laughed. "Just free up some of your time flow and progressively age."

"Is that what happened to you?" she asked. "You're younger than my mother, yet you look greatly older."

Eighty-Nine cleared his throat and stroked his fuzzy lip. "Well, I chose this look to seem more distinguished, while your mother took the more natural approach for our people, and stopped her aging when she felt it proper. To the pure-humans, she would look to be in her 20s."

A grimy youth stepped through the door behind Eighty-Nine. His hands were dirty and his golden hair was covered in some strange pink grease. Eighty-Nine sniffed the thin air and turned around in shock.

"OneO'Five, what happened to your hair?" he asked seeing the pink slime. "Tell me that isn't hydraulic fluid!"

"Congealed hydraulic fluid," he thought aloud. "The maneuvering systems sprung a leak as I was testing them. Most of the hoses are old and brittle. It will delay us to mend them properly."

The child smiled. "It is no matter – I can remain a child for a little while longer then, okay mommy?"

Cindy looked down on the child and picked her up. The gun she held gently fell to the floor in the light gravity.

"No dear," she said. "You must start now. And we must increase your training." She held her tight then looked over to Eighty-Nine.

"Who is in Plant Four?" she asked.

Eighty-Nine pulled out a PDA he had in a pocket of his pants and tapped it a few times. "Umm… it looks like Twenty-Four is in there now."

Cindy nodded. "Good. He is a strong one - he should be able to do it. OneO'Five, how long will it take to repair the hoses?"

He scratched his head then noticed that he was scratching the fluid. "Ugh… well, we don't have the machinery to make the hoses, so we'll need to physically create them using our energy and matter transduction of raw materials – that's pretty time consuming on its own. We're talking a couple of months at least."

"What have you in mind, madam?" Eighty-Nine asked her. She smiled.

"Have Plant Four prepare a gravity training ground for my Sara," she thought to them while brushing the child's hair with her hand. "Tell Twenty-Four that he is to increase the gravity slowly while she dwells in his care. She is to practice and learn. She will be updated on the events of the worlds. She will be better prepared than we had originally planned."

Eighty-Nine swallowed. "That is for sure. At least we won't be as rushed as we thought. After all, she is only two weeks old." He stepped to a console and placed his hand on it.

"Computer," he spoke aloud. "Activate the simulation room – and give it direct ties to Plant Four."

The thin air made the speaker hard to hear, but a slight "Affirmative" could be heard. He placed his hand over the speaker so as to feel the sound better. "Current simulation is Grand Circus Park – shall I continue?"

Eighty-Nine glanced back at the two who were embraced behind him. "Store the current program. Run practice gymnasium and living quarters. Install into the program an exterior access to the gym via a work room that shall be independent of the rest of the simulation."

"What shall the gymnasium have installed into it?" the computer asked.

Eighty-Nine thought for a moment. "The gym will need the following – a work out facility and a target practice range. The living quarters should have the usual accommodations, as well as a learning center. I will personally draw up your schedule." He then felt something and looked up through a skylight in the room. He saw a flash of reflected light and grumbled.

"Them again," he said. "What should we do about them?"

Cindy looked up. "Don't be so harsh, Eighty-Nine. They are our salvation - they just can't do anything about it yet."

He looked at Cindy. "You – you've communicated with them?"

She handed her daughter to the man and looked back into the Coldsleep room. "In a way yes," she told him. "The captain and the first officer of that ship have touched my mind. They are quite remarkable people. As of now, they can only observe us and not interfere. But some day, they will be coming to our aid."

"Then, why send your daughter on this mission?" OneO'Five asked. "She should stay and wait for her father to be awakened."

"That is not the reason I was born," the child said. "You know that silly!"

OneO'Five was about to say something, but was cut off. A flash of light flared through the window.

"The ship!" Cindy cried thinking something had happened to the Observers.

"Something is coming up from the planet!" Eighty-Nine yelled aloud. Readouts on the computer monitors started to jump all around. He read the readouts of the five Plants. They were increasing dramatically. Then…

It was like the world had been picked up and shaken by a little boy. Gravity failed. Everyone floated as if in their containment vessels. The window became fogged over, and dust started to rise both inside and outside the SEEDS ship they were in. Clanking could be heard – something was striking the hull. This was replaced by thunderous banging. Situation alarms were keying all over the monitors. There were ruptures and punctures showing up throughout the base.

"Sealant pumps are at maximum!" OneO'Five reported. "What is going on!?" He looked back to see Cindy holding her hands up.

"It… it is Vash," she said in their minds. "Vash, calm yourself – release the hostility that they have plagued on you – terminate the beam, please!" Her wings were unfolding and she was beginning to power up.

"MOMMY!" Sara cried as she watched her float through the wall of the Coldsleep chamber. She reached her full power as she stopped before Mike's capsule.

"MADAM!" Eighty-Nine yelled. "YOU'LL BURN YOURSELF OUT GOING FULL POWER LIKE THAT OUTSIDE A CONTAINMENT VESSEL!"

Cindy ignored the plead and stared at the ceiling of the chamber. "Vash, I shall protect them," she said in her mind to him. "Cease your discharge, or I shall stop it for you!"

"Who said he was in charge of it?" another voice asked. This one was cold and heartless, and made everyone shiver when it rang through their heads. "You are weak and foolish if you think you can defeat my master. UHHH!"

The voice was cut off when someone else overpowered the first voice in a shout of pity and anger. "NO! STOP IT! STOP IT NOW!!"

What happened next was communal. It rung through everyone's minds like a fiery hot dagger being yanked across them. It was like the sudden pulling of a great plug of energy. The pain within their souls was enormous. Cindy dropped to the floor, her wings vanishing as if they had suddenly disconnected from her body. When she looked up, there was no one in the windows of the control center. Then one was there - her Sara.

"Mommy!" she was crying.

"Is everything alright down there?" another voice asked. Cindy thought for a moment. Then she remembered – it was the voice of a friend who could not help at this time. He too sounded tired and pained.

"We are fine," she said gasping for something to say. "What about your ship?"

"We're fine," the voice said sounding a bit relieved to hear her, "but I'd look out your nearest portal – you probably have the best view of what just happened than we do right now."

Cindy used the door to exit the Coldsleep room. She looked around to see where the nearest portal was.

"That – that was the captain of that ship, wasn't it?" Eighty-Nine asked her. "What kind of human is he if he can talk to us in our own way?"

She didn't answer him. She only wanted to look outside the ship. She saw a portal to her left and ran to it. Her gasp brought the others as well.

The edge of the crater was only a few hundred yards away. A communications tower erected long ago had fallen into it, but was melted before it toppled. The curve of the moon surface no longer rose, but dropped away. Mountains they used to see were obscured by the smoke and dust, and were possibly gone. And under the dust was a red glow of hot magma.

She pounded the window. "Vash is loosing the battle," she cried. "Quickly, get Sara in the room – get her training. We must stop Knives and these… heartless minions of his."

"Mommy, I don't want to leave you!" the little girl cried. Cindy slid down the wall crying. She turned and embraced her child.

"You must my dear," she told her. "You may not see me when you get out of training, but you are our only hope if we are to ever stop this nightmare. You, like Vash and Knives, are a hybrid. Even though our origins are from humans and angels, you, like they, are a product of the mating of a human and our kind, the Angels of 5. This will give you the strength to fight them."

"Them mommy?" the child asked wiping tears away from her face. "I thought all I was fighting was Knives."

Cindy pulled her wet face away from the child and brushed her hair out of her eyes. "That voice we heard – you may have to deal with him as well – you may even have to deal with Vash. He is a kind hearted man – maybe too kind hearted. He might interfere rather than help. I will attempt to convince him otherwise." She kissed the girl on the forehead.

"Now go with Eighty-Nine. He will be your teacher and guidance."

The balding man coughed. "Well, okay, if you insist. OneO'Five, would you please inform your sister that I will need her assistance for this please? I may be able to guide the teaching and training part, but I have little on the 'being a girl' part."

"Why can't mommy do that?" Sara asked as she was taken by the hand by Eighty-Nine.

"It will soon be time for me to re-enter the Plants dear," Cindy said sadly. "By the time your training is completed, I may be well into my ten years of duty to the rest of the crews and ships."

"Then you will be like daddy," the child said with her heart in her mind. Mother's hand caressed her cheek. She looked up to her.

"Not really. When you're ready to go, come to my Plant. I will want to see you before you do."

"Time is getting short – we must start this now." Eighty-Nine looked grim, but he was right. He led the child down the hallway towards the simulation room. Cindy waited momentarily as she looked at Mike in his chamber. She then followed slowly behind.

-----------------------------

Sara stepped out of the simulation room. Eighty-Nine shook his head and looked at her with an impressed look on his face. She smirked and laughed.

"Amazing how young one can be, and still be a dirty old man," she zapped into his brain. He laughed.

"When I put you in there, I looked down on you, young lady," he chuckled. "Now you're a good two heads taller than I am."

A girl stepped out of the chamber behind her and closed the door. "Remember Sara," she said aloud, "it is the men that you will mostly have to deal with down there, but don't be surprised if there are a few women that will be just as much trouble as the men."

"OneO'Seven, you're the best!" Sara said as she grabbed her with her forearm around her neck. The other girl began thumping Sara in the belly with her fist. It didn't seem to phase her much, but she did let go.

Eighty-Nine stood with a worried look on his face. "OneO'Seven, I asked you to be here to teach her the way to be a lady, not how to 'punch out a man's lights' as you put it!"

The punky girl looked at the man. "Her mother taught her that!" she squawked in his mind. "I just gave her the finer points of dealing with the worst of them!"

Eighty-Nine thought about that for a moment. "And how do you know about that?" he asked her. "You've never had to deal with that sort of thing."

The girl giggled. "I read the minds of many of the ladies in the Coldsleep rooms."

Eighty-Nine stood back. "You did WHAT!? OneO'Seven, you do realize that not only is that a violation of their privacy, but that most of them on this ship are from the security detail that was suppose to defend these people down there? Of course they would know of the worst on mankind! Wait a minute… that just might work out…"

"Of course it will," OneO'Seven winked. "Besides, the ladies seemed quite happy to help out!"

Eighty-Nine looked at her. "I won't even ask how you now that…" he grumbled. He then noticed that Sara was looking at the wall rather dejected.

"Sara?" he asked her. She looked at him with tears in her eyes.

"I've missed my mother, haven't I?" she asked. He nodded then took her hand.

"But she is waiting for you, as is everyone else… Come."

She squeezed his hand then let it loosen up when he was complaining that she was about to crush it. They headed for the rear of the ship.

Plant Two – the main power unit for the ship, and the heart of the launch system. Sara stepped into the engine room to be greeted by all the off-duty Plantoids. They formed a corridor to the base of the main Plant unit. She walked through the gathering hearing well wishes from her fellow shipmates. She then stood before the vessel of the Plant and placed her hand on the glass.

A hand could be seen on the other side. The clouds of yellow haze parted, and Cindy came into view. Her elongated body and her face were slightly deformed by the process, but she could still smile. Crying was out of the question, as was direct communications with her daughter. But she still was able to pass her feelings to her. A pulse of energy was sent through Sara that was warm and caring. She held her right arm to her chest to relish the emotion then stepped back. She snapped her heals together and saluted.

"I am Officer Sara Montgomery of the SEEDS Security Force, daughter of Commander Michael Montgomery and Plant Number 0-72-629 Delta 4, also known as Cindy. My mission is to apprehend and stop the child of Plant 0-42-871 Delta 87, known as Millions Knives on the charges of mass murder of both humans and Angels of 5, the manipulation of the minds of both humans and Angels of 5, and the deliberate misuse of government property, namely, the ships of the SEEDS Project. I will bring him to justice, dead or alive."

A rousing cheer filled the engine room as the others bellowed out their approval of her announcement. She saluted her mother once again and turned to head for the launch bay.

"Okay, now that you're here…" OneO'Five started then stopped when he saw Sara. "Whoa!"

"What?" she asked. She had just finished getting into her flight suit.

He shook his head. "Wow, I mean, uh… I mean, this… umm…"

OneO'Seven knocked him on the head with her fist. "It's not like you haven't seen her before silly," she chided him.

"Not like this before," he complained while rubbing the spot on his head that she hit. "The last time I saw her was just after she entered the simulation room."

Sara looked at herself. "What? Have I changed that much?" she asked then realized what she was saying. "Oh, right… the last time you saw me I was a child."

"Technically, you still are, young lady," Eighty-Nine commented as he stood behind her. "Remember, you may have been trained about the humans, but training does not mean you know how to handle them yet. No killing! Got that?" She nodded.

"So, am I gonna knock them out?" she asked OneO'Five. OneO'Seven started giggling as Eighty-Nine groaned.

"Trust me, you're going to have more problems with the men down there than Knives," OneO'Five said while attempting to keep his mind on the work at hand. He quickly showed her the outlay of her ship, a converted escape pod with booster engines and flight controls. He showed her where her weapon stores were, a box-like device that snapped open and deployed a dozen laser guided guns, a hover sled to carry her gear, and a trapping device for the capture of Knives.

"The simulation was good," she told OneO'Five. "These flight controls are perfect."

He smiled. "How were you at flying this thing?" he asked. She gurgled.

"Umm," Eighty-Nine said while looking at the ceiling.

"Hey, the important thing is landing it, right?" OneO'Seven said with a grin. OneO'Five fell down.

As she strapped herself into the seat, Sara felt a tapping on her shoulder. Looking over, she found OneO'Five looking at her with concern.

"Listen you, you take care with this thing," he said out loud with the full atmosphere of the pod. It rang as if someone was shouting at her. "If anything was to happen to you, I've got to deal with your mother for the next ten years." She smiled and touched his face.

"Then tell her that I loved her, and father." She reached down and picked up a crash helmet that was unceremoniously dropped in her lap by her girl friend.

"This should keep that hard head of yours from smashing the equipment," OneO'Seven cracked. She smiled and wished her well. Then all started out of the cabin.

"Hey," Sara yelled at OneO'Five. "I forgot to look – did you do what my mother asked you to do?"

OneO'Five thought for a moment then smiled and looked outside the hatch at the hull of the pod. "Yea, I did, but it's an odd name for a ship. What does DPM mean anyway?"

Sara laughed. "Detroit People Mover… whatever that is…"

They both looked at one another for a moment. To Sara, this may be the last time she would ever see them. She smiled and waved. OneO'Five did as well then shut the hatch and sealed the ship.

The ship was raised to an upper platform above the engine room. A blast door slid shut sealing it away from the rest of the ship. Then a canopy opened letting in the light of both suns on Sara. She dropped the visor on the helmet, but it didn't help much.

"Okay – stand by for launch," a voice said in her head. It was Eighty-Nine. "I believe that one of those history tapes you watched said the traditional way to send you on your way would be to say 'God Speed, Sara Montgomery' – or something like that… Starting engines."

The pod started to pitch and roll as the twin boosters kicked in while still locked to the deck. She reached down and pulled a handle. Explosive bolts fired, and her pod was catapulted away off the planet.

"STOP THE LAUNCH!" a runner yelled. "Didn't you hear me!?"

Everyone looked back at her. "Two-Fourteen, what are you doing here? You should be at the communications center," Eighty-Nine noted.

She gave him a curt look and sent what sounded like a thunder storm through his head. "I've been trying to get your attention for the last few minutes! Vash has won! He beat Knives and disabled him!"

For a few moments everyone just looked at each other.

"Is there any way to turn that thing around?" Eighty-Nine asked OneO'Five.

"Not here… and communications while the boosters are firing is probably pretty slim, since Sara might have blacked out. By the time they separate from the pod, she won't have enough fuel to come back here safely. She's on her way."

The pod raced along on its proper flight path. Telemetry was being relayed, and all systems were go.

To the Federation, the planet it was heading for was Deneb One – to the people who lived there, they named it Gunsmoke.

They never knew what was about to hit them.

"LOOK OUT GUNSMOKE!" Sara shouted. "HERE COMES THE DETROIT PEOPLE MOVER!"

oOo

**Next Episode**

_**Destiny - a word used all too often with little meaning. **_

The lives of three women will be drawn together in a search.

One searches for justice

_**one searches for the unknown  
**_

_**and the third for her future. **_

When destiny smiles, will she smile on them?

Next Episode - Chapter One of TRIGUN: Moon Child - Second Hole

Destiny can have such a wicked smile

_A Note: For those looking for the building I chose at 1st Street and Michigan Avenue, I chose a parking lot quite on purpose. Sorry 'bout that! Mind you, knowing how revitalization projects are in cities, I would not be surprised that at one time there had been a building on this site. _

Also, please note that since this is the future, things like inflation might have been taken for a fact – 50 cents just might not hack it on the DPM in the future!

Thanks to MAPQUEST AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY MAPS for the guide-work.

Roy Strom, Mr. Button, U.N.S. Forrestal & The Observers ©2003 DMS – Used with Permission

Detroit People Mover ©2003 Detroit Transportation Corporation

Crotchety Old Men from COWBOY BEBOP ©2003 BanDai Visual/Sunrise Productions

All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow

Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0311.11


	4. Second Hole

**Chapter One**

TRIGUN:**  
****MOON CHILD****  
****Second Hole**

**By R. A. Stott**

**- MONDAY MORNING -**

"Meryl!"

_Where is he? I mean, he knew I would wait, didn't he?_

"Meryl!"

_I mean, I wasn't too obvious, was I?_

"Meryl! We have a letter!"

Meryl Stryfe had been sitting against the wall of the small two room apartment she and her partner Millie had set up the local Bernardelli office in. She was having her daily stewing. But ever cheery Millie had just come in and ruined the perfectly good funk she was in.

_Maybe this is him!_

Millie handed her the packet – sent direct courier to the satellite service, then forwarded to the nearest field agent. Her hand shook at the possibilities that this little envelope held for her.

"Do you want me to open this for you Meryl?" Millie asked as she saw her hands shaking. Meryl blinked and glared at Millie. She nervously started to tear the paper and peeked into the envelope.

Inside, the yellow form of a 20-30A stared her in the face.

"This is a mission, Millie," Meryl said as she pulled the slip out – she was hoping… ah well, a mission was better than nothing. "Let's see… Sources report an explosion in the desert 100 iles west southwest of Demitrihi - Millie Thompson and Meryl Stryfe are to investigate this as a possible incident caused by the infamous outlaw Vash the Stampede."

Meryl felt her friend's heavy but gentle hand touch her shoulder. "Isn't this great Meryl? Now we can find Mr. Vash!" she exclaimed.

Meryl's cheeks turned a flush red at first, then beet red. She glanced at her partner then back at the form in her hands. Her face now was all red.

"Millie, why should I worry about that broom-head anyway?" Meryl snapped half heartedly. "If he survived the battle he was going to have with Knives, then why didn't he come back?"

Millie shrugged. "Maybe he thought we'd still be safer if he just stayed away?" she suggested. Meryl shook her head no.

"I don't think so. It could be so, but something is just… I don't know." Meryl held the paper to her chest. "But this is the perfect chance we needed to find out just what did happen out there." She scrunched the paper in her fist. "Come on Millie… let's go see what that explosion was."

Meryl stomped off towards the bedroom to pack. Millie watched with a worried look. Meryl was still unhappy, even if this might resolve to her just what happened to Vash the Stampede. She popped a pair of antacid tablets for her queasy stomach and joined her in stuffing her case.

**- SUNDAY –**

**The day before.**

"HE DID WHAT?"

Sara could just barely hear the colony she had left behind her through the static of the communications system. Everything on the pod was working fine, but the com unit still seemed to need some tweaking. Ah well, too late now…

"Vash beat Knives!" the voice of Eighty-Nine could just be heard over the ruckus. "But there's something you need to know…" The static got worse at that moment. "…return… …only by circ… …Vash… …set free… …otherwise… …burn off the… …retur…" The radio failed at that moment.

The pressure of the launch, what with the boosters still firing, meant that she was still plastered to her seat with arms heavy like lead. Normally, the rocket firing would not have lasted as long, being that they were only escaping the Fifth Moon's gravity, but they were also in need of avoiding both the Third and First moon's as well. This all meant for a long burn.

"But… what did he mean by Vash – set free?" she wondered through the vibration of her assent. She then found herself slammed against her safety harness as the first stage of the boosters detached.

"Did he mean that Vash was going to set Knives free?"

The second stage ignited, slamming her back into her seat.

The stars and the planet spun in her window. She wasn't going to let a little thing like gravity get in her way. She concentrated all she could into raising her arms and holding her palms out flat against the void of time. She attempted to see the way her mother could see, hear the way her mother could hear. But the future she saw was a fiery one, a sad one, a planet in desolation and ruin.

Then she saw him. He cackled and laughed, his eyes burning with hate and vengeance. She saw the shattered remains of Plants in the rock and sand. She saw Vash valiantly defending a… donut kettle? She saw a winged creature, a Plant yet not a Plant, but with a Plant's powers, as it was skewered on a steeple. She saw death and destruction roll over the world.

She saw the man she had been taught to be Knives face down in the sand… what was that? What was the strange triangle on his back for? It had been carved there with two slashes running through it.

Another jolt, this one harder than the first, knocked her out cold. The final boosters separated from the pod. Its own engines now fired, sending the ship hurtling towards a spot near the northern desert of the arid world below.

**- TUESDAY –**

Demitrihi seemed as empty as Carcases had been a few months back. Meryl's thomas snorted as she circled the town center. She did not see any signs of life, save the stray cat or two. Even these few Kuroneko were more life than Carcases, but not much more. It made her skin creep.

She looked back at Millie, or at least where she thought she would have seen her. She had thought her friend was right behind her but she wasn't. It took a moment of searching to see that she was stopped further back up the street they had come into town on. Her thomas was just sitting there. It would bob its head from time to time, but little else. Millie was sitting upright on the beast looking up at something before her. Meryl had her thomas walk to one side of the square she was in to see what had her attention so.

A church - This was a good time to leave Millie be then. She adjusted herself on her Ollie saddle and rode back to the center fountain and disembarked her steed. She saw the town's satellite telegraph room. She went to see if there were any updates for them.

**- MONDAY –**

**The day before.**

The ship's automatic systems had taken over when the pilot's reaction fell below the normal response listing programmed into it. It then targeted the spot where the most residual energy was detected – a plateau roughly 100 miles from a town to its east, where a circular crater was. The computer in the pod had determined that this would be the best location to find either of the renegade Plantoids.

But it failed to adjust for speed.

Sara woke up when the ship was first buffeted by the upper atmosphere of the planet. The pod was coming in too steep, too fast and much too late to stop.

"Dear mother protect me," she whispered as she reached for a handle between her legs. With a tug, she engaged the emergency escape systems. Instantly, a metal mesh cocoon started to jump up from around the console in front of her and surrounded the chair she sat in. Foam covered pillow bags inflated around her as the last sections connected to the aft deck of the pod. Explosive bolts fired, and the emergency escape section was jettisoned. A small retro rocket fired to slow the capsule down as the rest of the pod continued towards the spot the computers had set for it. It struck the center of the crater like a bullet hitting the bull's eye of a target, blasting a second hole in the planet, and making the area look like a giant wide opened eye. Ten minutes later, the capsule arrived into the second hole on the tails of three parachutes.

Sara was still snug within her airbag cocoon, which she wasn't very happy about. A small emergency flight computer was yammering about the safety factor, and that she should remain in the capsule until rescuers could remove her since there was a risk of contamination or harm from fire and such things that didn't bother her. She managed to get both of her hands together and tweak a switch on her right wrist. A knife popped out of her suit and into her hand. She them proceeded to pop the airbags one by one. A corn starch like material started to fill the cabin, and she sneezed. She then found that the metal skin that had surrounded her was a bit warm to the touch.

"I'll be roasted in here," she said to herself. She concentrated hard. An energy bolt rolled across her body and raked across the skin of the capsule. The plates that had closed over her now started to break apart. But as they did, she found out why they were so hot. She seemed to have landed in the area with the most fires. Now even the parachutes were on fire. She crossed her arms and powered up. A pulse of energy swept the fires and burning debris aside giving her a path out of the wreckage.

She slowly walked out into the wastes of the crater. She stood in her flight suit and a few shards of the parachutes in the midday heat. She looked back at the fires and scraps of what OneO'Five had slaved over for so long. It had been a dependable vehicle, if a bit one way. Rest for a job well done.

She looked about to see if there was anything she could salvage. She found the long box that held the 12 laser guided guns intact. She slung that over her shoulder and continued to look about. She found the hover sled in about six pieces, and the capture device looked like it had been what the ship had landed on. She wasn't going to get any uses out of either of those units.

Something behind her tugged on her feelings. She looked away from her ship's parts to the open ground beyond the rim of the ship's crater. There were a few things glaring in dusty dirt and sand. A set of tracks marred the otherwise smooth surface of the bowl of dirt, leading to the shiny object, then away from it – correction - them. She stepped out onto the plane of soil and examined the objects.

They were a pair of identical guns, though one was black and the other was polished silver. Both seemed to have had parts damage. She held her hand over the silver one then looked about - Two steps over and six steps down – there. She stuck her fingers into the soft soil and found a side-cover to it. A few more steps to the other direction and she had the other half. A set of screws so tiny they would have been mistaken for small rocks to the normal eye were also found. She opened her small kit pouch on her belt and removed a micro screw driver to reassemble the covers, but when she touched the gun, a vision came to her mind.

_"Dang is Jesse, this hole just ain't natural," a grimy looking human said as he passed over the rim of the crater._

Sara dropped the gun and looked about in a defensive position. She grabbed a handle of a stick-like baton that her mother had told her that her father used to wear back on Earth – a Nightstick she called it.

There was no one there. She looked back at the gun then looked around again. This time, she continued to look around while touching the gun.

An image set itself to the horizon. Her damaged ship vanished, and two men could be seen walking towards her within the confines of the tracks she saw before. Neither of them were Vash.

_"It looks like something exploded up here," the tall skinny partner of the first man said as he stood by what looked like a stump of a tree. "But I don't see any fragments of what it was."_

_"Hey, the sheriff wants us to see what it was that shook the town last week," the first one said. "If all we can say is we found this big hole, then that's what we tell him."_

It was at this point Sara nearly panicked, as the man saw something in the sand near where she was squatting down at. She looked down at the ground where her hand was touching the gun. But since she had moved it, another silver gun was laying where this one she held with the tips of her fingers once lay. The man looked down and reached for it.

_"Hey, look at this!" he exclaimed as he touched it. "OW! Damn, it's hot!"_

_The first man came over. "Those are big guns," he noted. "'Guess layin' in the suns like this have made them a bit scorchin'!"_

_The first man looked at the second as if stating the obvious was a normal habit of his. He pulled a cloth he had stuffed in his hip pocket out and attempted to use it like a pot holder to pick up the gun. As soon as he did, it started to smolder then burst into flame. The other man tried to do the same with the black gun and had similar results._

_"Crap!" the second one yelped. "My hand's on fire!" he screamed waving the hand about. No flame was visible, but the color red on the palm was quite obvious._

_The first man looked at the gun and kicked the silver one away where it landed exactly where Sara had found it earlier. "Damn things are cursed!" he swore. He then noticed his shoe had puffed a little smoke when he tapped the gun._

_"Let's get out'a here Grunt," the tall man said taking a step away from the guns. "They probably did this," he said pointing at the guns with his free hand. "I bet they belong to Vash the Stampede!" They then scampered away from them, jumping over the rim of the crater and out of Sara's vision._

She looked at the gun and nodded. "The isotope is still active," she said to herself as she examined the rod-like piece on top of each barrel. She reached behind her and pulled a small box out that split opened. She pressed a button on the keyboard inside and then held it in the direction that the two men took. She looked at the device and shook her head.

"Damn fools… that wasn't just heat they felt," she murmured as she put the box away then quickly reassembled the shield covers on the gun. She held her hand over the second gun as well and located its protective lids and screws. Once fixed, she removed the standard issued guns in her hip holsters and slid the guns into each. She placed the two discarded guns in a backpack she now had to sling over her gun box.

She stood for a moment. She held her breath and snatched the silver gun from the holster she had placed it in, aimed into the desert and pulled the trigger.

The sound of 'CLICK' was heard, and that was about it. She stood in stunned silence.

She looked the gun over. She found the release and popped it open.

All the bullets were spent as they ejected their empty shells in a cascade of metallic plinks.

She quickly did the same with the other - Likewise. She drew a breath.

"Sara girl, you just about went off on your mission with two unloaded guns!"

She sighed. She felt that there was a reason to have these guns, and that they were indeed powerful. Heck, the one is responsible for making the crater just outside her home ship on the moon above her. She sighed and swapped them for the laser-guided ones again and put them back into her holsters.

As she placed the silver gun into the pouch though, another vision struck her. It was a man. He was a bit disheveled, though knowledgeable. He was now sick – no, he was dying. She reached into the pouch and pulled out her survival kit. She removed a medi-kit from the larger unit and pressed in a code. A small canister dropped out of the small machine. She shook it. It rattled with the sound of small items inside it. She looked again in the direction of where the men went.

"I hope I can be in time," she whispered. She stood up and examined the wreckage once more. She found some survival kits and stuffed her backpack with them. She then headed for the crater's rim in the direction the men went.

She stubbed her toe on something. She looked down at it as the sand sifted off the large box-like device.

"Huh," she said to herself. "It's another gun carrier." She reached down and dug some dirt away and lifted it up. She was surprised at what she found.

"Those men ran right over this," she said while holding it by the exposed muzzle. The cross-shaped device was still in deploy mode.

"This is some modification to a standard gun-box," she thought. She twisted the trigger dial that was in the middle of the cross. Instantly the lower half slammed shut and the upper half opened.

"Dang – a missile launcher!" She turned the dial to the half way position. The top section slapped shut, and the two arms then slid open. A row of standard guns deployed. She was impressed.

"This is one formidable weapon," she commented to herself as she slid the covers back over the guns.

Another vision came to her at that point - A vision of two women. The tall one – this belonged to her? Not exactly, but… ah, yes. She was the one it should go to. It had belonged to her – um – friend. Or had he been something else?

She walked back to the wreckage and found some cables. She came back to the cross gun and fashioned a harness to it. She then temporarily strapped her own gun box to it and hoisted it to her back. She looked back and found the end dragging along the ground making her stoop over. Damn her short legs! She flipped it over and carried it upside-down, moving it to her right shoulder. Over her left went the backpack. She then stepped out onto the plain in search of the men who had found the guns.

**- TUESDAY AFTERNOON –**

Meryl was surprised that there were in fact people in Demitrihi. When she had entered the satellite office, there was a telegraph official talking with the sheriff. They informed her that most of the people were staying inside until the reports of Vash the Stampede laying waste to a section of the plateau west of town were substantiated. She had found no updates for her from the office, but this information had been enough.

"Millie!" she shouted as she had jumped back on her thomas and barreled back towards where she had seen her partner earlier. "Millie, we've got to go!" She stopped as she saw that Millie was still before the church, though this time she was wiping her eyes.

"You know, this is one of those Craftsman Churches," she said with a chipper voice, much to Meryl's surprise. "They get them out of a catalog, and they're sent via steamer to wherever you want them. My daddy built one back home." She then heaved a sob as if a boulder had just struck her. "It's just like the one back in Carcases."

Meryl sat back in her saddle. "Millie…" she whispered. She saw her friend wipe her face and grin at her in her usual way.

"So, what did you find out at the satellite office?" she asked in her chipper voice again. Meryl sighed.

Two hours out of Demitrihi - They were following the tracks the two men the sheriff had sent out to check on the report of Vash the Stampede had left behind. The plateau outside of town rose high over their heads, and even with the thomases, it was a slow pace. Meryl was wishing she hadn't been so gung-ho to get going to remember to fill their canteens. She hadn't realized that the plateau was quite so far to get to, let alone cross.

Sara had made it to the edge of the plateau. She looked down the long vast sweep of the valley below. The terrain was long and breathtaking, but obviously a great distance to hike. She started down the gentle slope.

About an hour after her descent, she could see a pair of strange creatures standing above the scrub brush that lined the slope. Beside them were two humans. She quickened her pace.

Meryl stood with her hand to her face. Millie was behind her with a similar expression.

"M'am, what do we do?" Millie asked. She then looked up and saw something coming.

"I'm not sure," Meryl gagged. "I've never seen anything like this before. This is not just a bad case of suns burn either."

She felt a hand on her shoulder. "Meryl, look!" Millie was pointing up the slope at a figure walking in their direction. A cross on its back was very familiar.

"Is… is that Vash?" she asked. The suns were about to drop behind the top of the plateau, so the figure was silhouetted against them.

"If it is, he shrunk!" Millie commented. She was right – this person was too small for the legendary humanoid typhoon. As a matter of fact, it wasn't much taller than herself!

"Who is that?" she asked out loud.

"Don't touch them," a deep woman's voice shouted. As she got closer, Meryl could see that indeed the person was a woman, and she had Wolfwood's cross on her back. She stood a few yards back to examine the pair she had just stumbled on. She looked down at the two men she had been searching for and sighed. She quickly removed the cross and backpack and pulled her little box out again and flipped it open.

"Damn, too late." She looked at the readings and sighed again. "Damn fools. I guess they never taught you folks about radiation," she said. She then scanned the two women to make sure being so close to these two men wasn't affecting them. She stopped on the tall one and sat back for a moment. She huffed then placed the device back on her belt. She then removed a can of spray and began to use it on the men.

"What is that?" Millie asked the strange lady.

"This is an aerosol with an isotope inhibiter in it," she said. She then nodded towards the cross. "I believe that is yours?" She continued to spray, now doing the scrub around the men as well.

"Now wait here!" Meryl barked. "Just who are you?" She stepped back quickly, not expecting the woman to look up as soon as she did.

"I could ask the same, though I already know – you are Miss Meryl Stryfe and you are her assistant, Millie Thompson of the Bernardelli Insurance Society - Pleased to meet you." She stood up and saluted them.

"I am Officer Sara Montgomery of the SEEDS Security Force," she said. She crossed her arms behind her back.

"SEEDS?" Meryl asked. "By SEEDS do you mean – umm – you know, SEEDS?" The SEEDS project was known to those with schooling, of course. She pointed up at the sky.

"Actually, up there," Sara corrected her, pointing at the Fifth Moon. Meryl gulped.

"Up there!?" she said with a quivering voice while looking at the gaping crater on the surface of the moon and remembering the day it came to be. "You came from up there?"

Sara looked back at her home. "My home is just on the north edge of the crater," she said. When she looked back at the two women, Meryl was holding her mouth.

"Oh my god," she whispered. "I had hoped that Vash hadn't killed anyone with that blast…"

"He didn't," Sara noted. "He came damn close though. But we don't hold him accountable for that. We hold his brother accountable for it, and all the other offences. That is why I am here." She blew air. "Millions Knives is wanted on mass murder charges, and it is my sworn duty to bring him to justice."

Meryl's eyes flew wide. "You – you know that it was him?"

Sara blinked. "Of course," she said with a bit of wonder in her voice.

"You have proof?" Meryl added. Now even Millie was curious.

Sara scratched her head. "Well yes, we can document the fact that all the disasters were in fact the work of Millions Knives, and not Vash the Stampede… why?" She then stood back a few steps seeing stars flashing in the eyes of Meryl Stryfe.

"M'am?" Millie asked a bit perplexed. "What does that mean?"

"That means Vash can be exonerated, Millie!" Meryl nearly squealed. "He could have that stupid sixty billion double-dollar bounty taken off his head!"

"Actually, it's now Two Hundred Sixty Billion double-dollars," Millie corrected. "They jacked it up after Augusta."

Meryl burst. "Who cares, as long as her evidence clears his name!" she shouted.

Sara raised her hand. "Please, m'am… you shouldn't shout at someone in her condition!"

Meryl blinked, as did Millie. "Her condition?" they both asked.

"Well, I have been feeling a bit sick lately," Millie added. Sara just stood there with a blank look on her face.

"M'am," Sara started then replaced "M'am" with "Millie, it would be best that you stand away from this radioactive spot, as it could be harmful. The spray takes a while to work, and you need to keep yourself healthy."

That struck Meryl. She knew what the officer was referring to, and she slowly looked back at her partner.

"Millie," she chirped. "You're pregnant?"

Millie burst out laughing. "Oh, M'am! You're such a kidder!" She stopped when she looked at the expression on the other two lady's faces. Sara brought out the scanner again and pointed it at her. Meryl looked at it as it beeped and a picture popped up on the screen. She gasped.

"They… they only have equipment like this at the big city hospitals!" Meryl yelped. "But I've seen that before!"

Sara nodded. "They used to call them an ultrasound, but now they call them a diagnostic scan. You are about a month into the first trimester."

They set up camp far from the bodies. It was a quiet night, even with a new face to talk to. Meryl had wanted to know if the officer had seen Vash, but the news of Millie's condition was now overwhelming her.

"You will have to return to base," she told her. She was surprised by her response.

"I will not!" Millie shouted. Her yell carried down the slope in a drawn out echo. "I feel fine, and I will continue on!"

Meryl held her head – a question had been boiling inside her since that afternoon, and she just couldn't hold it in any longer.

"Millie… You said all you two did was sleep together!"

There – she asked it – it was out – damn!

Millie tucked her knees to her head as she sat on the ground. The memory was flooding back to her of that night. She sighed.

"I'm sorry Meryl… the rest was kind of… personal."

Meryl smacked a tin cup she was holding on the ground. "Damn it Millie! Do you know what Bernardelli is going to do when he hears about this!?"

Millie hung her head even further below her knees. "Yes, daddy is going to flip!"

Meryl shook her head. "I was talking about the boss, not your father."

"But my father is the boss, didn't you know that?" Millie sprightly said, popping her head back up. "My great grandfather married the lone Bernardelli heir – my father is the CEO."

Meryl sat perplexed. "Your father is Frank Thompson…" Then the name struck her. It had never occurred to her that the Thompson whose name was on her pay stub could be the same as the girl she had been working with so long. She dropped her head between her knees now.

"Figures – no wonder they didn't just can your tail after some of the stunts you've pulled," she remarked.

"Yeah," Millie added with her usual cheery laugh. Sara smirked as she stirred a pot of K-2 rations – a stew that had erupted from a pack she had pulled from her sack.

"By the way, do either of you know a Frank Marlon?" she asked. The name brought both of the lady's heads up and looking at her.

"Frank?" Meryl asked. "Yea, he's the gunsmith of Warrens City. Why?"

Sara held out the vile of tablets she had made the day before. "We need to get these to him as soon as possible. He too may have the same sickness that killed those two – probably not as bad though, since I sense that he is still alive."

Meryl looked back over towards where the bodies lay. "Why would he be ill with whatever did those two in?" she asked. When she looked back, Sara was holding the silver gun up.

"That's Mr. Vash's gun!" Millie exclaimed. Sara nodded.

"I found it up there, where they had run into it earlier," the officer said as she placed it on the ground so she could serve the stew. "It has an isotope suspended within a carbon rod in that chamber on top of the gun – it is the focal point that the Angel Arm cannon was created from."

Meryl moved slightly away from the gun while staring at it. "Angel what?" she asked worried.

"The big gun that made that," Sara flatly said while handing a dish of stew to her while pointing at the moon again. "Those two found it when the radiation was still too high for them to get near it. Frank Marlon, on the other hand, was given the gun by the man whose gun-box you now have. I am surprised that he wasn't affected as they were, but I have my suspicions I know why." She looked at Millie as she handed her a bowl of stew. The look on her face was back to being sad.

"I'm sorry, I know how you feel. Millions Knives has claimed many we feel for." Sara placed the bowl beside her and sat down to eat.

"Why didn't it affect you, officer?" Meryl asked.

She looked up from her bowl. "Just like Vash and Knives, I am not fully human."

Meryl dropped her bowl. Millie looked up at Sara.

"F-Fully human?" Meryl stammered. "What do you mean not fully human?"

Sara continued to eat. "My father is a human. My mother is a Plant."

When she looked up, Meryl had passed out.

"I don't think she took that very well, do you?" Millie asked.

Sara sat in bewilderment. "Why would she do that?" she asked.

Millie giggled a bit as she attended to her stricken friend. "I think it's because she's fallen for Mr. Vash, that's why!" She carried her off to her tent.

**- FRIDAY – WARRENS CITY –**

"A special delivery for Mr. Frank Marlon from the Bernardelli Express Post," the courier announced at the door of the office. A doctor greeted him. "Oh, hi doc. Is Frank about?"

"Frank is sick Charlie," the doctor said. "I don't think he'll survive long the way it's going."

"Damn," Charlie spat. "And this came all the way from Demitrihi too." He held the small box out. The address said 'Frank Marlon or Doctor in Charge.'

"What's this?" the doctor asked, pointing out the label. Charlie scratched his head.

"No idea, doc. Strangest pack I've ever seen."

The doctor shrugged. "Okay then, I'll sign for it." When he opened it, there was a vile of tablets and a note.

"Dear Doctor," it read. "The patient you are dealing with - a Mr. Frank Marlon of Warrens City - is suffering from radiation poisoning. These tablets, given 4 times a day until finished, will help him, if given in time. If needed, crush the tablet and feed to him in a solution of water. Apply skin ointments to any wounds and peelings caused by the poisoning. If he survives, it should take about 6 days to see results of healing. Good luck. Officer Sara Montgomery – SEEDS Project Security and Meryl Stryfe – Bernardelli Insurance Society."

The doctor scratched his head. "I'll tell ya, the mail is delivering the damnedest things these days."

Frank Marlon woke up the next Thursday.

oOo

**Next Episode**

_**Indefinable evil – a source of hate and spite that wraps up our world in a mire of emotions that will drown us all. **_

In this desolation can there be any hope, any life, and chance for peace?

A dirty hand says yes, but the cold hand rules the day.

Next episode of TRIGUN: MOON CHILD - Chapter Two - Singular Night

Into the night, the demon will come.

Craftsman and Craftsman Church ©2003 Sears Roebuck & Company (Yup there were such things!)

All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow

Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0311.12


	5. Singular Night

**Chapter Two**

TRIGUN:**  
****MOON CHILD****  
****Singular Night**

**By R. A. Stott**

Meryl lay confused in her sleeping bag staring at the tent above her. She woke up after fainting at supper with a throbbing headache. She glanced over and saw that Millie was also contemplating the weave of the fabric in the canvas over them as well.

"I don't get it Millie," she whispered, as if she didn't want to wake up her parents. "You said you came from a small village and that you tended the fields… How can your father be Frank Thompson then?"

"Well easy," she giggled. "He owns the village and the fields around the village. And he always told us that if we were to be the best for our fellow man, we must be able to work like our fellow man!"

"And he runs Bernardelli… sheesh." Meryl rolled over and continued to bounce the many questions about in her mind that had been dropped on her by this newcomer – this Sara Montgomery of the SEEDS Security Force. She had admitted it – she wasn't fully human – neither was Knives… or Vash for that matter.

The day that Vash had left them after Wolfwood had died, he had explained to her his history, but he had not explained his birthright. She had witnessed this Plant creature before – Vash had shown her that as well. But the fact that they could walk among them was surprising enough. Then there was this Sara. She was different. Maybe it was because she was a Plant/Human mix – she just radiated a force. Somehow she felt that they were protected because she was there. Up until that moment, she had felt totally on her own, even with Millie there with her stun-gun. She felt completely at the mercy of the environment. But somehow, now it was different.

Maybe it was all that lost technology she was tossing about when she worked. She didn't know.

"If it's a boy, I think I'll name him Nicholas," she then heard. She looked over her shoulder at Millie and sighed.

"And if it's a girl?" she quipped.

"Nichole of course silly!"

Meryl shook her head. "What if there are twins? That scan was a bit early to show a proper view yet."

"Well then, I know what their names would be if it's a boy AND a girl…" There was a moment of silence. "If it's a pair of boys, I'd better find out," Millie said to herself aloud.

Meryl craned her head to see her partner better. "Better find out what?"

Millie laughed. "I'd better find out what the 'D' stood for in his name!"

Meryl dropped her head on her padded bag end. She then saw a shadow move in the moonlight. The shape was that of Sara. She sat up and looked out the tent flap.

"Contact," Sara thought. She had her arms wide and was sensing the night sky. "I can feel you," she continued as she was attempting to contact a feeling that she had felt before.

"You?" came a response fro its source. "Who are you?"

"Ah yes," Sara said to the wind. "It is you. I felt you before. You are the friend of these two women I have partnered up with."

"Am I now?" the voice in her mind said. "Wait a minute… Who is this, and who are these women you're talking about?"

Sara winced. "You are a friend of Vash the Stampede?" she asked rather than answer the question.

"Wait a minute… answer MY question first!" the voice demanded.

"YOU are a friend of Vash the Stampede?" Sara asked again, but this time putting some fire into her request.

There was a brief moment of swearing. "Damn! Stop that! Your shouting makes my head hurt!" the voice yelled back, making Sara wince again. Obviously, this voice could give as well as receive. She cleared her head by tapping on her ears. She held her hands out and searched for the contact again.

This time she struck something round - Something cold - Something that reeked evil energy. It made her skin crawl. She squirreled up her courage and concentrated on this source.

"Who is there?" a voice asked.

Sara nearly released the contact the feeling was so vile. She reissued the attempt again, only to be caught up in a swell of bilious energy that nearly made her gag.

Meryl watched the officer from her tent flap. To her, she was simply standing there with her arms outstretched.

Inside Sara's mind, the hideous morass that she was moving through was stifling. She attempted to rise above it, but found that her body was ensnared in threads. She attempted to free herself with her hidden knife, but she found the blade to be rubber.

"Impressive mental attack," she commented. It was answered with laugher.

"Ah, it's you. I have been waiting to meet you, my dear," the voice snidely said. She could not tell just where it originated from, but she knew it wasn't close.

"Hey lady! Where'd you go?" the first voice returned.

"You!" she shouted. "Get away! Quickly!"

"Crap! What the hell is that?" There was the sound of the wind being brushed aside by something large, then Sara felt her hands get grabbed by someone else's. She looked about in her mind and could not see anyone there. But she could feel the blast of the air as something pounded on it.

"Release her!" the evil voice cried. "She is mine! She is family! Give her to me!"

"Damn! I know that voice!" the voice that was pulling on her snarled. "Knives! What are you doing here?"

The morass cackled loudly. "Knives? I am not Knives, you foolish human. But I know Knives… I MADE KNIVES!"

Even through the pain of being pulled in two directions, Sara concentrated on the voice.

"What do you mean you created Knives?" she shouted into the maelstrom that was sweeping through her mind. "Who are you?"

The laugher continued as the stress put on her lower half increased. "Who I am will become apparent soon enough, my dear!" he cackled. "If you thought Knives was bad, just you wait! He was just my first creation. There will be more where he came from – after all… I have an unlimited supply!"

The voice faded. The strain on her legs seemed to lessen, but the hands holding her wrist were still pulling.

Meryl gasped as Sara started to rise off the ground. She then had to jump as the officer was flung back, knocking the tent down and dropping Sara in a scrub bush behind them.

"What was that m'am?" Millie asked groggily. It took her a moment to notice that she was looking at the stars. Meryl had run over to Sara to see if she was okay.

Sara remained motionless, staring at the sky in bewilderment. "Blast," she finally said to Meryl's wondered look. "Who was that?" She sat up.

"Are you all right?" Meryl asked as she helped the officer up. Sara nodded slightly, still grumbling.

"And I was worried about Vash freeing Knives," she murmured.

"Vash doing what?" Meryl asked. A fearful look was in her eyes.

Sara trudged over to the fire and sat down, her energy depleted. She poked the embers to get some life out of them while dropping a few extra sticks on top. Meryl and Millie joined her.

"While I was coming here," Sara said seeing the questioning looks she was getting, "my communications to my home were broken up. I could have sworn they said that there was a chance that Vash would let his brother go."

Meryl shook her head. "Vash wasn't about to do that!" she stated with conviction. Sara closed her eyes and nodded.

"From what I saw on the plateau, I would tend to agree," Sara said. "But since I arrived on this world, I have felt a curious sensation. A feeling of evil permeating everything – present company excepted… And that it was worse than anything Knives had done."

Meryl sat back. "Considering what Knives put us through… That would be hard to do." She looked at Millie who was still a bit dumbfounded by the tent being removed the way it had been.

Sara sighed. "I thought I could sense it. I tried to seek these other feelings that were bombarding me constantly. I found two tonight - One was a friend of yours, though he never told me his name. The other was an incredible evil force. It was enormous. And for some reason, it felt familiar." She clutched her knees and sighed again.

Meryl looked at Sara with concern. "A friend of ours? Do you mean Vash?"

Sara shook her head, though you could not see her face. "No - no…" she said from behind her knees. "His strength was that of a Plant, but that was all I could feel. But he swore like mad – I've never heard a Plant swear before." She peeked over her leg and saw she was being given a wide-open shocked stare from both ladies. "What?" she asked them.

Meryl slapped herself in the face. "Oh nothing, it couldn't be him… It just couldn't be him!"

Millie though was blunter. "Did he smell of cigarettes?" she asked.

Sara raised her head and looked at her. "What's a cigarette?" she asked. She slowly rose from her crouched position and trudged towards her shelter.

"I'm sorry ladies," she said. "I overexerted myself and I'm still not used to this gravity completely. I'll try to explain what I can in the morning." She ducked her head down as she entered her tent, and Meryl and Millie could hear her falling onto her bedroll.

The Insurance Girls sat and stared at the dying fire. Meryl had missed dinner, so she was nibbling on a biscuit. Millie was rocking back and forth just contemplating the flames.

"You think she was meaning…" Millie started.

"I don't know what she was meaning," Meryl quickly interrupted. She stood up waving her hands. "This has been a weird evening. Let's get to bed."

Millie nodded and stood.

"M'am… our tent…"

Meryl sighed, having forgotten that the tent had been knocked off into the brush earlier. It was going to be a long night.

Exhaustion is a strange thing. Sara rolled over, too tired to sleep. She sighed. The voices that she had touched were still echoing in her mind. She kept pondering the one – created Knives? How so? And family? Could there be another renegade Plantoid?

Sleep did finally fall on her, but only for a short while. Meryl found Sara early the next morning sitting at the dead campfire staring at something in her hand. She would rock slowly while rolling the object between her fingers. Before her, the Fifth Moon, enlarged by it's proximity to the horizon, was about to set. It was then that Meryl heard the officer singing to herself.

_**Oh I'm being followed by a moon shadow**__**  
**__**Moon shadow**__**  
**__**Moon shadow**__**  
**__**Leapin' and hoppin' on a moon shadow**__**  
**__**Moon shadow**__**  
**__**Moon shadow**__**  
**__**And if I ever loose my hands**__**  
**__**Loose my plow**__**  
**__**Loose my lands**__**  
**__**Oh if I ever loose my hands**__**  
**__**Oh weehoohaa weehee hee haha hee**__**  
**__**I won't have to work no more…**_**  
**  
Sara noticed Meryl's presence and glanced back at her. She nodded then continued to study the object in her hands.

"Hard time sleeping?" Meryl asked as she tried to hide a yawn. A grunt confirming her prognosis was Sara's answer to her. "Interesting song there," she added.

Sara smiled. "It's old. I once asked the computers I was using while training to find me a song about the moon."

"That was the song it came up with?" Meryl asked with a slight laugh.

Sara cocked her head to one side. "It wasn't the only song in the data files. But it was a pretty song – 'About the foolishness of worldly needs and wants… But I do want… I want this so badly…" She lowered her head and held the object out, propping her arms on her knees.

Meryl looked at the item – a silver badge, unlike any sheriff or marshal badge she had ever seen before.

"Where is that from?" she asked the officer. Sara looked up at the badge she held in her hands and smiled a pained and sad smile.

"This is my father's badge from when he was a captain in the Philadelphia police." She turned it around and pinned it to her uniform where it had been partly hidden under the red cloth that she draped over her shoulders.

"You must miss him," Meryl said as she looked at the ground.

"Actually, I've never met him in person," Sara said clutching her knees. Meryl looked at her and blinked. She then noticed movement behind them and looked back.

It was Millie. She was trudging along, rubbing her eyes and mumbling words only she knew or could understand. She then found a large bush, went behind it and threw up.

Sara sighed. "Morning sickness," she explained to the startled look Meryl had on her face.

The cool morning air was starting to wane as the trio finished their breakfast and broke camp. Now that the radiation had been quenched, Sara wrapped the two bodies of the men in some of her parachute cloth she had scrounged from her ship. Meryl was surprised at all the officer seemed to be able to store in her backpack. She had given the bundle a tug when Sara wasn't looking. It weighed a ton!

The thomases were used to carry the bodies and some of the ladies equipment. It was going to be a long walk back to Demitrihi.

It was late afternoon by the time they arrived in town and had finished with the sheriff. Meryl was surprised at how easy the man was to take Sara at her word that she was an officer of the SEEDS Security Force. He thanked her for her services and had the two bodies taken to the mortician.

After a brief stop at the satellite telegraph to send their package to Frank Marlon, the ladies next stop was to find their bearings. Having given the all clear, the town was beginning to look a bit more alive than the first time they had visited before. They stopped at a small restaurant to discuss their plans. Meryl positioned Millie with her back to the street – the church was directly across from the restaurant, and she didn't want her distracted.

"So, was he smoking, or wasn't he?" Millie asked - So much for not being distracted.

Sara blinked. "Excuse me?"

"The person who saved you last night, silly!" Sara wasn't sure whether this chipper mood this large lady was giving her all the time was going to be conducive towards her work, or her sanity. She thought for a moment to remember just what she was talking about.

"Ah yes," she said finally. "Why would he be smoking? Is he on fire?" She noticed Meryl pointing across from them.

"That's what she means," she said. A man was lighting up a cigarette at a table on the other side of the room.

"What?" Sara exclaimed with an odd look on her face. "What is he doing? Why is he burning that in his mouth? My circuit! He's sucking in the smoke! He'll die of smoke inhalation! It's filling his lungs! We must stop him before…"

Sara stopped when she saw the looks both ladies, the waitress and a few people at another table were giving her. She reached behind herself and removed a small box device, punched a few buttons and pondered it for a moment.

"Ah," she said. She pointed at the device. "It says here that he is doing that as a way of pleasure and enjoyment… 'but is detrimental to their lifespan'… some pleasure…" She closed the unit and returned it to her belt.

"It's disgusting really," Meryl groused.

"So was he?" Millie certainly was persistent!

Sara sniffed the air. "I didn't see him, and this smell wasn't present," she said pointing towards the wafts of smoke moving over their heads. She then lowered her finger and pointed at the cross shaped gun box that was still strapped to their mounts. "But I do feel that he is the owner of that."

Meryl held her breath. She looked over at Millie expecting an explosion.

"He owns our thomases?" Millie asked. Meryl plunked her head on the table.

-----------------------------

"Goethe… I have a mission for you Goethe…"

The room was filled with a sickly steam that made water droplets trickle down the glass containment vessels and pool in puddles along the floor. The air was filled with the smell of mildew and rotten papers. A hatchway above a door had a sign on it that read 'LIBRARY' and seemed to point towards a set of wrenched open bulkheads in the old ship. Many books and papers were strewn out this rupture and covered what was once a hallway, but were now largely stone and rock from the surface of the planet the library had landed on so many years ago.

A man stepped through the puddles. He stopped before a sphere and bowed.

"I am here master," the man said. He was tall and muscular with long hair that was tied behind his back in a tail of white and red. He wore an old SEEDS flight suit that seemed just slightly too small for his hulking physique. "What is your bidding?"

"It seems that just when I get rid of Mr. Witherspoon's disciples, another comes along," a tall thin man said from the sphere. He stood up and stepped out of the opening that was facing Goethe. "Knives is currently out of the picture, but not out of the war. You will see to that, won't you Goethe?"

"I will try my best, my master," Goethe mumbled, "but with most of the Gung-Ho Guns out of action…"

"Yes, Knives did waste their talents, didn't he?" the man snickered. "He did it rather beautifully though. You see, the regulars in the Gung-Ho Guns would never stand up to Vash. But then again, Knives knew that."

Goethe stared at the floor and sweated. "I don't understand master… why would the regulars not stand up?"

The master snickered again. "Oh, it is very basic, my dear Goethe… they were all merely humans - Poor, weak, practically naked humans. They never stood a chance against a Plant. And we all know it takes a Plant to take out a Plant. Vash proved that alone. He..." He turned and pointed at Goethe. "…Temporarily… beat his brother."

Goethe swallowed. "Temporarily? I thought he had permanently disabled him."

The thin man shook his finger. "Plants are much more powerful than just simply controlling minds and generating energy, Goethe. We are capable of much much more. Much much more… Shooting him in his four corners only disabled him, not finish him."

"But if humans can't beat Vash, what can I do against him or Knives?" Goethe glanced up when the finger tapped him on the forehead.

"You're thinking again Goethe," the master said with a sneer. "You're getting too much like your 'brother' and look where that got him. Granted, he did manage to twist Vash like a doll who's head was torn off, but he wound up pleading for death – even if he thought by having Vash kill him he would bring him great pain, he could have made him twist so much better if he had made him kill an innocent, not someone as warped as himself. Granted, I loved that warped mentality he had – you humans can be so demented when you want to be." He burst out laughing.

Goethe looked at the floor. "Legato did what he was told to do by Knives I thought," he whispered to himself.

"Yes and no," master snapped. Goethe had thought he had said that quietly, but he forgot how well master read his mind. "He made Vash suffer, but he thought he could end his own suffering in the process. He thought he could escape when escape was impossible! Knives made sure of that!" Master pointed at a vessel over their heads. The light that radiated from it blinked then steadied again. An arm could be seen within the glass. It twitched and moved from its harness. Goethe returned to looking down at the floor, not wanting to see that arm again.

"Now then, my dear Goethe," the master said placing a hand on his shoulder, "I want you to go to Violet Town and stay there until summoned. Tonight, I will offer a massacre in Turnbuckle as a way to get our lady friend's attention. Meanwhile, I will be activating the secondary unit of the Gung-Ho Guns."

Goethe snapped a stare at his master. "But… but why?" he stammered.

The master smiled and slapped him across the face. "Like I said, it takes a Plant to kill a Plant. Now go."

Goethe bowed again. "Yes D'two. I shall await your summons in Violet Town."

-----------------------------

"Turnbuckle was a small community only 5 iles west of June Town," Meryl read aloud in her morning telegram. "The sudden explosion of the Plant rendered the town flat. There were no survivors found. Meryl Stryfe and Millie Thompson will report to the garrison station of the Southern Cavalry. There said employees of the Bernardelli Insurance Society shall determine whether this was another event tied into the notorious outlaw Vash the Stampede." She crushed the paper in her hand, a look of anger raging over her face. "I DON'T BELIEVE THIS!" she shouted.

"That sounded like Velmas' writing," Millie said of the telegram. "She always adds all those big words to her messages!"

Meryl glared at Millie. "That's not what I mean! Vash is still being blamed for every incident that takes place on this planet! If the President sneezed, it would probably be caused by Vash Flu!"

"Is that contagious?" Millie asked as her waffles were delivered by the waiter in the café they were having breakfast in.

Meryl gritted her teeth. "No Millie… Where is Sara? She needs to know about this."

"She seems to be sleeping in this morning," Millie said as she opened a pickle jar and placed one on the waffle. "I heard her last night in her room say something, but I thought she was just dreaming." A shot of whipped cream topped the breakfast.

"Millie, what are you making?" Meryl gagged.

She shrugged as she started to devour the concoction. "I just have this urge for sweet and sour waffles this morning," she cheerfully said.

Meryl sat back. "Yuck. I'm going to find Sara. She needs to know about this."

Meryl went up to the rooms they had rented above the café. She knocked on Sara's door.

"Sara?" she called. She placed her ear near the door and heard a muffled cry. She tested the door and found it locked. "SARA?" she yelled. The cry was still there, but otherwise no response.

"Is there a problem missy?" the innkeeper asked looking up the steps.

"Yes, there seems to be, sir," she called. "My friend seems in trouble, and the door is locked."

The innkeeper came up and pulled out his master key. "Normally, I'd wait for the sheriff, but since your friend is a law-lady, I'll make an exception," he said. He listened to the door for a moment. He looked back at Meryl and nodded. "Yup, somethin's amiss…" He unlocked the door.

Meryl stepped into the room. The bed was directly across the room. Sara was clutching the sides of the bed sobbing heavily into her pillow. She stepped over to her and touched her on the shoulder. Sara jumped, snapping a wet tear strained face at Meryl. She then climbed up and embraced her wailing in pain.

"It was horrible!" she cried. "He forced her! He pulled out her safety rods and forced her to…" She trailed off into heaving sobs and the word "Murderer…" over and over again.

"Coffee," Meryl barked. "And make it strong!" The startled innkeeper darted back down the hallway to get the requested order.

"It will take more than that to help her," a voice came from outside the room. Meryl looked back to see a tall man with wavy blond hair step into the room. He wore a simple set of smithy clothes, and his hands were large and grimy. He had the look of a man that had seen the world, but enough of his youth left to still see more. He stepped over to the side of the bed and bent down beside them.

"Who are you?" Meryl asked a bit startled that the man had simply stepped in.

"The name is Lexington. And Miss Sara here would know who I am easily." He placed his hand on her shoulder and concentrated. A glow briefly went between him and her. She snapped a look at the ceiling then fainted into Meryl's arms.

"What did you do to her?" Meryl demanded. Lexington smiled.

"I gave her rest. I am a Plant as well you see."

oOo

**Next Episode**

_**Must evil always be evil?** _

**Is there a greater evil than an evil known?**

**Destiny and fate have always been evil partners.**

**A cry in the night brings on an evil dawn.**

**Next Episode of TRIGUN: MOON CHILD - Chapter Three - Singular Dawn**

**Evil begats the dawn. Will peace be the mother of the night?**

"Moon Shadow" ©1971 Cat Stevens

All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow

Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0311.13


	6. Singular Dawn

**Chapter Three**

TRIGUN:**  
****MOON CHILD****  
****Singular Dawn**

**By R. A. Stott**

"Sara - Saaaara…"

"Saaara? Can you come out to play?"

Rods slipped - The vessel cracked - A scream of pain and anguish - Blood boiled - Energy overloaded.

Meltdown – combustion – implosion - explosion – devastation.

Time stopped – no, time slowed – it never stopped. It rolled and thundered like a hellish fiery beast that devoured the town and people in it. It continued out along the countryside spitting and scorching the soil and scrub, marring the surface of the world leaving a permanent record of its wake.

"You know, I think I made a mistake – I should have done this during the day. Too many people are asleep. We can't hear their screams."

Time now stopped. It reversed and everything returned to the way it had been.

Sara sat up in bed, sweat pouring off her brow.

"Who… what did you do?" she asked the empty room.

"Oh look, I won't have to wait. Just putting everyone through that little detonation of mine has woken them up, just like you my dear."

Sara looked around the room in a panic. There was no one there, but she could feel them. She could feel the Plant screaming in torment as she had been torn apart, thrown back together, and now waited for the inevitable. She could feel the shock of the people in the town that had just been resurrected from ash as it stood ready to feel hell's wrath again. She could feel the evil mind that had forced this upon them as it laughed at the thought of repeating itself. She rushed to the window.

The first sun was just about to rise. There was a red glow coming from the east.

"Bang!"

A flash of light to the northwest - Hundreds of screams filled her ears, her mind, and her soul. She flung herself to the bed and grabbed it as if it were a life preserver. She held on as tight as she could, but the flood of yells and the horror of the moment poured in on her. She planted her head in her pillow and joined the people of Turnbuckle in a final scream of pain.

The large hand of Lexington ran across her brow as she slowly woke from the induced sleep he had given her. Beside him was Meryl, tears running down her cheeks as if she had just witnessed the same event.

"Dear god, Sara," she whispered. She was holding her hand trembling. "Mr. Lexington just told me what you were put through…"

Sara weakly looked over at the man beside her. He smiled and continued to rub her head.

"You – you're a Plant… a full Plant…" she managed to say through the massive headache she was having.

He placed his hand across her forehead and closed his eyes. Meryl watched as he jerked slightly and sweat started to spot his own head.

"Please don't," Sara said a bit louder than before. Meryl looked down at her and saw that she was now wide eyed and nearly alert. Lexington on the other hand was trembling. He held his hand up to keep Meryl away as he gritted his teeth and grunted. He then sat back and smiled, wiping his brow of the wet droplets.

"What did he do?" Meryl asked.

"I removed some of the pain that she was experiencing," he said. "And that was quite a lot!" He reached over and helped Sara to sit upright in her bed. She seemed fixated on him.

"You're a Plant," she repeated. "Where did you come from? How long have you been here?"

Lexington sat back. "Not all of us stayed in our vessels when our ships crashed. Those of us who survived forced ejection have lived in secret, moving about from town to town so to not arouse suspicion. Currently, I am the smithy here in Demitrihi." He stood up and stretched himself cracking a few joints rather loudly. Both Sara and Meryl squirmed a bit at the sound.

"How many are there of you?" Meryl asked. He leaned against the wall and shuffled his feet.

"I have personally met at least a dozen, but I'm sure there's many more," he said. "I know of Dixon, Pittsburgh and Dallas locally, and I know of Phoenix and DC just north of here…"

Meryl looked at him. "Those sound like places to me."

Lexington nodded. "Many of us took the names of the cities that donated us to the SEEDS Project." He walked over to a chair in the corner and straddled it. The innkeeper had returned with Meryl's requested cup of coffee. Lexington took it. "You're not ready for this stuff yet," he said to Sara while drinking from the tin cup.

"Hey, that was for her!" Meryl growled.

Lexington pointed at the cup then at Sara. "This stuff has caffeine in it. The last thing you want to see is a Plant with caffeine in it!"

"Well, you say you're a Plant!" Meryl snapped back. She saw him glare at her and she drew back.

"I've had damn near 200 years of coffee, dear. I think I'm adjusted to it!" He sipped on the cup again.

Sara clutched at her blanket. "Who was it?" she finally asked. Meryl felt a wave of anger emanating from her and stepped back. Sara noticed and turned down her aura that was making it tense in the room. "Who did this to Turnbuckle?"

Lexington sighed. "The sphere - That is all we know. Some of us have tried to find out who it was ourselves, a few of which have vanished trying. We do know that the accusations against Vash are unsubstantiated, but with so few of us, and with the little we could do, the Free-Plants Union voted to remain silent."

Meryl exploded. "Damn you! Damn you to hell! You allowed them to put Vash through this hell he's lived in all these years simply to save your hides!? Damn you!"

Sara sat back at the outburst. She now realized just how deeply Meryl felt, even though on the surface she kept a veil of silence for the most part, she was extremely concerned for Vash. She reached out and touched her hand, making Meryl snap a look at her. The anger on her face subsided and began to turn to tears.

"It is my job to offer justice to this case," Sara said. "Rest assured Vash will be exonerated." She looked at Lexington and nodded. "The Free-Plants actually did what they had to do. If they had tried to intercede, I'm sure this man in the sphere I have seen would have stopped them. It is up to a superior being… beings… to stop it."

"Pardon?" Lexington asked.

Sara smiled. "I felt something – something deep in this creature… something that even Knives failed to realize, or possibly wasn't allowed to realize. This creature fears humans. He made Knives and the others think humans are inferior – they are not. Train them, and they will outdo even us. They are more flexible than us. They are more resilient than us. Humans were destined to spread, and he fears this. He also fears the fact that we are part human. This is what we must exploit in this situation." She slipped out of bed and stood up.

"Excuse me folks," she said in her nightgown. "I thank you for coming to my aid, but I must get dressed now."

---------------------------------

Millie was standing outside the café nibbling on an onion shoot when Meryl found her. She was quietly examining the church again. Meryl stood back hoping that Millie wasn't beginning to dwell too much on the church and Wolfwood.

"They built it wrong," she said.

"Huh?" Meryl asked.

"The steeple – it's too far back. It's a fake you know. The mounting posts to keep it from falling during a wind storm are further forwards."

Meryl just gawked at the building.

"I tried to tell them that when they erected it," Lexington said as he walked up from his shop next to the church. "We haven't had a good wind storm around these parts in a while, so they said that having it centered on the roof would be more unique."

Meryl glared at him. "What do you want?" she snarled.

Lexington stood in the street and scuffed his feet. "Listen, just because the Plant-Union failed to help Vash doesn't mean all of us Plants felt the same way. I want to make amends."

Meryl looked at him skeptically. "How so?" she asked.

Lexington waved his hand back at the town behind him. "It would seem that my identity as a Plant has been released to the public. I have lost many of my contracts and jobs as of this morning. I think it is time to move on."

"Oh, Mr. Lexington, I'm sorry," Meryl exclaimed, shifting from resentment to worry.

"There's nothing to be sorry about m'am," he said. "I'd rather not be in that shop when the steeple falls on it during the next wind storm or typhoon. Besides I wish to help out on the officer's quest, and I have a way to do just that."

"And that is?" Sara asked as she joined up with the other two ladies.

Minutes later, the trio had gathered up their thomases and gear and joined Lexington in the back of his forge. He pushed hard against the hearth. It slid silently to one side revealing a large opening in the ground.

"This is how the Plants stay safe and unseen," he said leading them in. The tunnel was large and round. Millie grabbed Meryl by the shoulders and shivered.

"Meryl!" she wined. "I think I know what this is! This is a sand worm's hole!"

Lexington glanced back. "You're very observant," he said. "This was indeed excavated by a sand worm some 80 years ago."

"Are you mad?" Meryl shouted - Her cry echoed down the tube. "Even old tubes aren't abandoned by worms! You're going to make us into worm chow!"

"This one was my pet," Lexington noted. "Sand worms can easily be domesticated, just as the first settlers did with the thomases. And Plants can control them rather easily. They will not bother you."

Sara felt around in her mind. Indeed, this Lexington was correct. Worms were close by, but they seemed to want to avoid them, rather than attack them.

"Why have you brought us down here Lexington?" she asked.

Lexington waved his hand over his head. Small lights lit up along the roof bringing a dim glow to the cavern and revealing a large wheeled machine.

"It looks like a sand steamer that someone squished!" Meryl said.

"Another fine observation," Lexington said. "We designed it to run through the tunnels. They can take us practically around the world, or at least get us closer to your destination faster." He tapped on the hull. "Dallas, wake up! We need your power!"

There was a dull thud from inside the rear of the machine, and then a low rumble of something building up power. Lights all over the steamer started to come on. Meryl was about to ask Lexington a question when she saw that he had his eyes closed, and he seemed deep in thought. She looked at Sara and saw she was as well.

"Yes – yes," Lexington said. "We will need the caboose as well Dallas. We won't be coming back here for a while." Lexington looked back at the Insurance Girls, who both were a bit puzzled at what he had been doing. Sara smiled at him.

"I understand," she said. "This is one of your Plant friends that you know locally. This steamer is powered by a Micro Plant."

"Actually, the vessel on this steamer is my own design," Lexington said with pride. "It's based on a Micro Plant, but the containment vessel is flat along the top so it reflects the power back more effectively, and it allows the unit to fit inside the steamer better."

"It is also your Plant, is it not?" Sara asked as she looked down the side of the machine for the door.

Lexington laughed. "I have been the power center for it, yes. Dallas was the previous smithy here before I 'came' to town to replace him."

"Pure Plants," Sara noted to the perplexed looks she was getting from Millie and Meryl, "the children of Angel 5 like Mr. Lexington here, must rejuvenate themselves from time to time within a vessel, otherwise they can loose their contact to The Source."

"Human–Angel mixes though," Lexington added, "have the advantage of not needing to use vessels, though they can if they wish to."

"Rejuvenate?" Meryl asked. "I've… we've seen Vash. He's… well… you see… his body… umm…"

"He's a mess!" Millie blurted. "Scars all over - plates too!"

Sara looked back at them. Meryl was surprised by the look on her face. It was both of shock and sadness.

"Really?" Sara said. "How sad… I do hope it is not too late for him then."

"What?" Meryl jumped. "Too late for what?"

"Restoration – rejuvenation," the officer said as she slid open the curved side door of the steamer. "If a Plant remains out of its vessel too long, they can not return to rejuvenate. The same can be said for a Human-Plant mix, but the time period is shortened greatly. A Plant can remain out of their vessel for nearly 200 years and still restore themselves. A mix though needs to decide quickly which they choose to be – human or Plant."

"Why?" Meryl nearly pleaded. She checked up on herself not wanting to sound like she was desperate.

"As a human, a mix may live as a human with the benefits of being a Plant," Sara said with her back to Meryl, "but they loose the capability of using a Plant's vessel to restore themselves. He would have about 75 years to choose." She looked over her shoulder at Meryl. "Tell me, does he like sweets?"

Meryl swallowed. A million donuts fell across her mind. Sara smiled at the reaction.

"Ah, I see he does. It's the carbohydrates. He would be driven to need them to keep up his body." She looked inside the steamer and nodded. "Nice room in here."

"We'll need it," Lexington said as the caboose, a section that looked like a combination of the passenger section and a storage unit, was locked to the back of the steamer. "Let's get our stuff and the thomases down here and stowed." He dropped a loading ramp off the back of the added car and stepped in to prep it.

---------------------------------

D'two held a ball in his hands. It was a simple toy of a child's. He examined a star that was on one side of it. He rolled it about and bounced it twice. He stood up and stepped out of his sphere. He looked about in his outer chamber at the small array of bulb shaped units that lined the walls behind him. He stretched and cracked his fingers.

"Ah well… time to wake the masses," he said. He took the ball and tossed it at one of the bulb units. It smashed the small glass shield and bounced back to him.

On the steamer, Sara grabbed her chair. Somewhere in the west, someone had just been forcibly ejected from their containment unit - Then another to the north - Then another southwest of them. Lexington stepped into the room from the forward section. He was looking about as if he felt it as well.

"You felt that, don't you?" Sara asked him. He started to play with a console near the front of the room.

"Indeed… I'm attempting to get bearings." His fingers flew along the board as a monitor flashed information.

Meryl was fascinated by the device Lexington was working on. "What is that?" she asked. He smirked as he continued to work.

"We managed to salvage a working scanner unit off the SEEDS ship this steamer was constructed from." He stood up and looked at the readings as he and Sara felt more ejections take place. "He's releasing Plants all over the world," he reported. "I can't get a central position."

"Who is releasing what?" Meryl asked, but was cut off by the monitor as it crackled and switched images. A white glow appeared on it, and something could be seen moving slightly.

"Officer Montgomery?" a woman's voice asked from the monitor.

"Madam Chairman," Sara said as she snapped to attention and saluted the screen.

"Officer, I'm sure you feel the sensation we are feeling here, am I correct?"

Sara stood stiff and barked out "Yes m'am! Ejections are taking place all over the planet."

The face on the monitor looked down. Even through the glare, Meryl could sense a feeling of sadness radiating from it.

"Forced ejections…" the face said. "Why is someone attacking us?"

Sara adjusted herself. "I'm not sure this is an attack, madam," she reported. "As you know, a forced ejection does not mean the Plantoid is being killed. My mother is an example of that."

The chairman looked up. "That is correct – you are the daughter of Cindy, aren't you?"

Sara winced at another ejection. "Yes m'am. My orders were to apprehend Knives – but since Vash has already done so, I am taking on this mission instead – with your permission?"

The face nodded. "I will inform Vash to continue here and not divert to assist then." The vision faded as Sara and Lexington felt yet another ejection.

Sara turned away from the screen. She clutched her arms and pondered what she was feeling.

"These ejections," Meryl asked, "what are they?"

Lexington sat at the chair at the console to the scanner. "A forced ejection is when a Plant forces another Plant to leave their containment vessel." He then jumped on the controls as another ejection was felt.

"And your mother was forced out?" Millie asked Sara. The officer nodded. She then turned to the girls with a look of shock on her face.

"No wonder it felt the way it did…" she whispered. "Dallas," she then shouted, "get us under way! NOW!"

"Wait a minute! We're still loading the caboose!" Meryl yelped.

"Quickly then," Sara coached. "I must get to Turnbuckle."

It took fifteen minutes to load the two extra thomases that Lexington was bringing. Meryl was surprised just how well stocked with equipment and supplies the caboose held. It would come in handy if they could keep it available. She sighed, knowing that with their luck, it would probably be lost or tossed aside at the first chance to use it. She slid the door shut and climbed aboard the forward section.

Dallas charged up and began to roll out. Lexington showed Millie and Meryl their rooms, much to their surprise. The Tunnel Steamer was much larger than they expected.

The bridge was much different than the one they remembered on the colossal Sand Steamer they had ridden before. It was much more compact. But it suddenly dawned on Meryl that there was one thing missing.

"Umm… not to sound worried or anything," she asked with a bit of trepidation in her voice, "but who is piloting this thing?"

Lexington laughed a deep and bellowing laugh. "The Tunnel Steamer simply follows the tunnels. There is no need for any pilot other than the Plant that is controlling the ship."

"What if he's ejected like those others have been?" Meryl bluntly asked.

"Dallas won't be," Sara said from the rear. "I have a feeling about those being ejected. Turnbuckle will confirm my suspicions." She returned to the passenger section.

"Any idea just what she's feeling?" Meryl asked.

"Not a clue," Millie answered. "Is there any pudding on this steamer?"

---------------------------------

The steamer stopped around noon. There had not been any ejections felt in over an hour. The tally to that point was 12 or 13. Sara had sat and stared at the ornate fixtures at the front of the cabin deep in thought. She looked over at the scanner board to see where they were. The tunnel was about 10 iles from Turnbuckle. According to the map, a junction of the tunnel system had turned towards the town, but seemed unstable due to the destruction laid upon it.

"We'd need to get out here anyway," Lexington noted, "and this was the nearest station."

The 'station' was a large stone that had been rolled against what looked like a worm's exit. And the only thing that distinguished from any other of the rocks around was the fact that someone had painted a large yellow X on it.

"How do we get around this thing?" Meryl asked.

"Simple," Lexington said, and he reached around the stone and grabbed it. With a quick lift and jerk, he moved the rock aside, allowing sunlight into the dark tunnel. It took Millie and Meryl a moment to adjust to the brightness.

"Ask a silly question," Meryl said to herself as she watched Lexington dust himself off.

"Wow, Mr. Lexington, you're awfully strong!" Millie exclaimed as she looked closely at the stone. A light touch and it rolled another foot.

"A basaltic pumice rock," he explained to the confused Millie. "Looks hard – light as a feather."

Meryl attempted to move the rock, knowing just how strong her partner was. It was still heavy. She looked over at Lexington in astonishment, but noticed Sara first. She had mounted her thomas that Lexington had provided her. She was decked out in full battle gear, including her gun box unit strapped to her back.

"Are you expecting trouble?" Lexington asked as he noticed the armaments and long term survival gear.

"I did not want to impose on you, sir," Sara told him.

"Don't be foolish," rang in her head. She was shocked to have him speak to her in such a way, and from the expressions on the Insurance Girls faces, they had 'heard' him as well. "My steamer is your base of operations until further notice, understand young lady?"

She smiled at him and handed down the backpack of over-essentials. She removed a few items and locked them to her belt. Lexington stepped into the caboose and was heard rummaging through things for a few minutes. Millie and Meryl climbed aboard their steeds as they waited.

As they sat, Meryl noticed that the gun in Sara's left holster wasn't the high-tech laser guided model she had seen in there before. It was the chrome steel silver model of Vash's. She had her thomas shimmy over to the officer and nodded towards her.

"That gun… where did you find it?" she asked her.

Sara looked down at it. "It was up on the plateau along with its mate. Vash seemed to have abandoned it along with his brother's unit." She gestured back to the small pack on her back she had exchanged with Lexington. The grip to the black one was sticking out of it.

"Why are you bringing them along?" Millie asked as she joined the pair.

Sara touched the silver gun in the holster. "I dare not leave them behind. The isotopes inside the units bear pieces of Plants."

Meryl stared at them. "Pieces?" she gasped. "What do you mean pieces?"

Sara sighed. "A Plant can not simply die. We live outside time. Normal decay does not affect us. And thus, I carry these with me as they bear pieces of my fellow Plants."

Meryl held her mouth. "I might be sick," she murmured.

"Are you pregnant too Meryl?" Millie asked. She got a glare from her partner.

Lexington came out of the caboose on his thomas. He was dressed much like Sara, in the uniform of a security officer.

"I thought so," Sara said looking at the uniform.

"Not exactly," he said looking a bit embarrassed. "While you were contemplating what the Chairman told you, she sent me a message that deputized me. You are my superior."

Sara nodded. "We are then to proceed to the cavalry outpost near Turnbuckle. After which, we search out the Plant's location and search for evidence."

"Understood," Lexington said with a small salute.

"Who is this chairman?" Meryl asked. Sara looked over at her.

"Vash's mother," she replied and started off. Lexington followed.

"She said Vash's mother, right?" Meryl asked with a twitch in her cheek.

"Isn't that great?" Millie exclaimed as she followed the other two. "Now you can meet his mother! You two could have a family!"

Meryl sighed. "My mother the light bulb…" She looked about to see if anyone had heard that. She then shooed her thomas to get going.

As they cleared the cave's mouth, Meryl noticed streaks in the dirt and sand, and anything that was once upright from growth was laid down in the same direction. The plains that greeted them was indeed flat, and looking back found that the rock face they had just come out of was the lone piece of upheaval to be seen for iles. In the direction they were heading was the only other blemish on this stark landscape – what appeared to be a ship's hull – the normal sign of a town on this planet – except that a few streamers of smoke were coming from the shell, and that all the laying objects were pointing towards it.

The hour and a half trek across the sands went silently as the disaster that had happened was beginning to come clearer as they approached. Millie and Meryl had seen Augusta after Vash had been forced to fire his Angel Arm cannon. At least there was wreckage.

Turnbuckle had been vaporized. This was the reason for the little smoke they had seen. You need a combustible material to create smoke. But in this case, it was simply removed from the planet in a radius pattern centering from the location of the Plant. A scorched surface of glass was all that was left of the streets and outer boundaries. The charred surface stretched roughly an ile from town, and crunched under the thomases clawed bird-like feet. It was easy to spot the cavalry's encampment – it was the only thing sticking up near the town.

Meryl looked at the horizon beyond the remains of Turnbuckle. June Town could be seen in the distance. She pulled a pair of binoculars out and looked at it. There were no signs of any damage.

The commander of the Southern Cavalry garrison that had come out to the disaster site came out to greet them as they approached. Meryl was surprised to see him snap to attention when he saw Sara's uniform.

"Colonel Melendez, Second Brigade of the Southern Cavalry," he reported. "I was not expecting someone as high up as…"

Sara cut him off. "Officer Sara Montgomery, SEEDS Security Force – My Deputy, Lexington, and Meryl Stryfe and Millie Thompson of the Bernardelli Insurance Society." She gave him a quick reply salute.

"Ah, I was expecting you two," the older officer said to the Insurance Girls. "Seems your company thinks Vash had something to do with this."

"That is why we are here," Meryl stated.

"Though we know he didn't do it," Millie blurted. Sara and Meryl looked back at her. So did the Colonel.

"Really," he said. "And why is that?"

Sara shook her head for her to remain quiet. "We know where he is – It was not him."

The Colonel did not look happy. "Really. Now that's a problem."

"Agreed," Sara said as she got off the thomas.

Meryl looked puzzled. "How so?" she asked.

Melendez glowered. "If he didn't do this, we have another person capable of destroying a city… unless you can prove that it was just the Plant going boomy!"

"That too is our job," Lexington said. "May we enter the town?"

The Colonel looked back and scratched his head at the lack of anything. "Damned if I could stop you if I wanted to, son. There's nothing left here to hide in anyway. The town is yours. Yell if you need any assistance, and I'll have a couple of squads ready to help out."

Sara bowed slightly. "Much obliged," she said and headed in with everyone in tow.

"Excuse me for asking," Meryl said, "but I've noticed something - First with the sheriff in Demitrihi, now with the Colonel here. Why do they snap-to at the sight of you?"

Sara blinked and looked confused at her. "Why? Aren't they suppose to?" she asked.

Meryl stepped back with a smirk on her face. "Sara, not to offend, but you hardly look like anyone with that much authority. I mean look! Look at all those men in those cavalry uniforms. THEY look like they have authority."

Sara looked about. Most of the young soldiers were gawking at the girl who made the Colonel jump. A few seemed almost enamored.

"It's probably because of section 87 of the officer's rules and codes," Millie noted. Everyone looked at her like she had just sprung a new head.

"Ea?"

Millie cleared her throat, then started to recite the book while looking skywards and tapping on her fingers. "Section 87, paragraph 1 through 8 – Dealing with an officer of the SEEDS Security Force."

"They have a SECTION about that?" Meryl squawked. "How do YOU know about that?"

Millie smiled and giggled. "My little brother Mikey is a Corporal in the cavalry reserves. He could even be here somewhere. But anyway, I used to read his manuals all the time. It says that if an officer of the SEEDS Security Force was to ever show up, that they should be considered the ranking officer on duty NO MATTER WHAT the senior officer's rank is."

Meryl shook her head. "But Millie, anyone could show up in that uniform – just look at Lexington!"

Millie shook her head no. "Nope – you see his uniform lacks that." She pointed at the patch on Sara's shoulder. It was a large blue plaque with SEEDS emblazoned in gold along its upper half and a gold and silver marshal's badge below it.

"Anyone could make that patch," Meryl stated.

"No," Millie insisted, "there is something special about this badge. You see, it's not sewn on, it's part of the uniform – plus this badge has a halo effect on it that can't be reproduced."

"I still say that someone could always reproduce it," Meryl said with stubborn resolve.

"Well then," Millie said with her usual cheeriness, "then you could always follow Section 87, paragraph 8 – 'If final verification is required to properly verify that the official badge of the SEEDS Security Officer is authentic, request that the officer tap on it once.' – it should then verify that she is who she says she is!"

Sara looked at the badge. Even she did not know that it could do that. She tapped on it once.

_"This is an official badge of the SEEDS Security Force. The bearer of this seal is authorized to uphold the law and governing rules set forth by the SEEDS Committee of the United Nations of the Planet Earth. This badge of office was issued to Sara Montgomery of the SEEDS Security Ship number 42. The officer's number is 472 – this number was transferred to this officer from Commander Michael Montgomery on the date of Sara Montgomery's birth, point eight years ago."_

"My, it is a long winded badge, isn't it?" Millie noted.

Meryl though heard much too much. "Point EIGHT years ago… What did it just say? Point EIGHT?"

Sara looked away. "And that means?" she asked.

Meryl walked around to face her. "It means that it's saying you're less than a year old!"

Lexington's large hand touched Meryl's shoulder. "Do not judge her on age, Miss Meryl. I am over 200 years old in your terms, yet I could pass for someone in his late thirties, am I correct?"

Meryl started to say something but held it back. He was correct. What did it matter that she was just 8 months old? She was mature and knowledgeable and certainly didn't act like a baby.

Sara bent close to Meryl's ear and whispered "I was training with a gun when I was only 2 weeks old!" She grinned and continued on.

Meryl looked at her. Childish maybe, but not like a baby…

Sara and Lexington headed for the remains of the Plant. Most of the bulb was missing, but the core unit and the reactor aft section was still intact. The shape of the ship fragment that it was attached to was the reason why its blast was directed at the town it supplied energy to. Sara felt around with her mind. She drew Vash's gun and held it out.

"What, is she going to shoot something?" Meryl asked Lexington.

"Hardly," he said. "It's still not loaded. I suspect she's using the isotope as a guide."

"A guide for what?" Millie beat Meryl in asking.

Sara stopped and pointed with the gun at a section of glass that was sitting below the remains of the containment vessel. She trotted over to it and moved it aside.

Millie gasped and turned away. Meryl stared in shock and amazement. Lexington bowed his head.

She looked roughly the same age as Sara, which could have been anything. All that was left of the Plantoid was her head, torso and right arm. She gasped and twitched, but she acknowledged the presence of Sara and the others.

"We are here sister," Sara whispered to the injured Plant. "We can save you."

"N-no… too late… rods removed involuntarily… Was forcibly sent into dimensional power field… part of me still there… can't pull back… too late…"

"Lieutenant!" Lexington shouted towards the squad that had been assigned to them by the Colonel, "have you a portable Plant unit?" He walked over to talk with the man.

"We can still save you sister,' Sara continued, almost pleading with the Plant to remain with them. She held her hand tightly. "Just tell me, who did this to you?"

The Plant coughed. "It was him… The devil of Detroit… He's back… The devil…"

Sara closed her eyes. She continued to hold the Plant's hand, grimly determined to keep her alive. She began a small energy transfer.

The portable Plant was rolled nearby. A few soldiers were shocked at what the Officer had found.

"What is that?" one asked.

"Is it human?" another followed.

"Gentlemen, ATTENTION!" the Lieutenant barked. "You are seeing a rare site. Treat it with respect – it is what keeps you alive!"

Lexington looked at the Lieutenant. "You've seen Plants before?" he asked.

The Lieutenant smiled and held out his hand. "Lieutenant St. Paul," he said with a wink.

"Nice," Lexington said quietly to him. "At least we have someone here who knows what we're going to try and do here. Who's inside this unit?"

"Delta 942," the Lieutenant said. "He can come out – he's been in there for almost 50 years."

Lexington nodded and started on the controls. He pointed to three of the soldiers and gestured for them to come closer.

"I want you three to hold the bulb section – I'm about to release the holding clamps."

"You're about to do what!?" one of the soldiers yelped. A glare from the Lieutenant settled him.

"I hope you brought along a second unit," Lexington noted as he shut down the safety rods and let the Plant settle.

"Always come with a spare," St. Paul said. He looked back at the wounded Plant on the ground and winced. "It's going to take a long time for her to heal."

Lexington glanced back. "I just hope she can heal… she says she's partly in the power field." He looked at the Lieutenant. "I don't want to loose her soul."

"I understand." He positioned himself alongside his men readying to catch the bulb.

"Here it comes," Lexington said as he threw the final switch.

Steam hissed and vented, making all in the camp take notice. Then the glass bulb shunted off its mount into the soldier's arms.

"Careful, men!" the Lieutenant barked. "We can't afford to break this!"

"But what are we doing?" one of them asked as they gently placed it on the ground. He didn't notice that the other two with him were gawking up at the place where the bulb had mounted. When he finally did, he got quite an eye full.

The man had his arms crossed, and what seemed to be a pair of wings were retracting into his back. His face had been contorted, but was now changing to something more human.

He was also quite naked.

"Ensign, go to the quartermaster's tent and get a set of clothes for this man!" the Lieutenant ordered one of the gawkers. Once he realized he had been given an order, he ran off on his mission. In the meantime, the Lieutenant and Lexington helped the now released Plantoid get down. The Lieutenant gave him his jacket to cover his light skin.

Now that the Plant base was free, Lexington rushed to the injured Plant's side and gently picked her up. Sara still kept her hand clenched around the girl's hand.

Lexington found that the height of this portable unit was a problem. He reluctantly had to get one of the soldiers to hold the Plantoid as he stood up on the control box for the unit so he could adjust the holding clamps. Meanwhile, the situation was drawing a crowd. Soldiers, including the Colonel, were watching in amazement what was going on.

Lexington then took the injured Plant, making Sara release her. Time was at a minimum now. He put what he could of her into the clamp. He pulled a holding yolk out that held her face down, but in place. He then looked down at the soldiers.

"Okay, quickly! Get the bulb up here!" he barked.

They lifted the heavy glass up. Lexington guided over the girl and seated in the base.

"Okay, hold it there!" he said as he jumped down and started to attack the controls again. Seals clicked and churned. A yellow gas was pumped into the vessel, slightly obscuring the girl.

"Okay… here goes," he said. He slowly twisted a dial. A set of rods creped down from the top of the unit and returned to where they had been earlier with the man inside. As they sank further in, the haze parted slightly, showing that the girl was reviving. An arm sprouted where the left one was missing. The soldiers simply stared awestruck.

She then sprouted a set of wings, making many of them jump back and causing one to feint.

Lexington smiled. "Good, she's managed to realign herself with her sub-space soul."

Sara placed her hand on the glass bulb. "It will take some time for her to regenerate her legs." She looked over at the soldier whose job it was to run this unit. "Make sure you treat her well, and make sure no one harms her, hear?"

"MA'AM, YES MA'AM!" he snapped and saluted.

"Did you get your answer?" Lexington asked into Sara's ear.

Sara nodded as she dropped her head. "The devil of Detroit," she whispered.

Lexington stood back. When she looked up at him, he had a stern and thoughtful look on his face. "What?" she asked.

Lexington looked at her with a serious expression. "Delta 2… M'am, our job is now twofold. First, we must stop him. Second, how did someone like him get aboard this mission? It would have doomed it from the start."

Sara took in a deep breath. "More importantly, I must contact the Chairman immediately." She started back towards the thomases.

Lexington and the girls watched in bewilderment. "Why?" he asked.

Sara stopped and looked over her shoulder. "They are preparing to put Millions Knives on trial – and from the evidence so far, he might be innocent."

---------------------------------

"Five people entering the Tunnel Steamer station," a man on the back of a thomas reported. He was far out in the desert – too far to be seen by the naked eye of a human. "Ah, the young officer knows I'm here…"

"Why is that, my dear Sandusky?" D'two rang in his head.

He laughed. "She just pulled Vash's gun and said BANG to me."

"Fool – if she had chosen to use the isotope, you would have been dead."

"No master, I wouldn't have been – she wouldn't have risked the others."

There was a moment of silence, followed by laugher. "Yes, I guess you would be correct, Sandusky. You have done well. Continue your mission."

The man nodded and turned the blood spattered thomas around. "I am off to Violet Town, as you commanded sir."

---------------------------------

"He will remain on trial dear," the Chairman said over the monitor. "I do not sense the Devil of Detroit as you call him."

"That is because I believe he is masking himself to you, madam," Sara said with a hint of anger in her voice. "How else would you have suddenly have given birth to Vash and Knives without your consent?"

The face on the monitor looked down. "Your comments hit deep, Officer Montgomery," she grimly stated.

"I am sorry, Madam Chairman. But it is true."

The monitor sighed. "I don't even know who the father was," she said quietly. She then looked up. "Until further evidence is brought forth, the trial will remain scheduled to start a few months from now. Gather your evidence."

Sara saluted the monitor. As the picture faded, she sat down and placed her head in her hands and blew air. This was more than she had expected.

Lexington smiled. "You'll do it," he said in her mind. "You can't stop a Montgomery."

She managed a slight smile. "Even when the prime suspect is your uncle?"

oOo

**Next Episode**

_**Memory **_

History

The sum of one's worth is made up of these two. But what if your's had been removed, torn away in an act of vandalism? Who would remember? What memory would there be left?

The Forge comes with an iron will to destroy the past and ruin the future. With him, Meryl is given a brief interlude with herself as she was and how she is.

Will memory ever be enough again?

Next Episode of TRIGUN: MOON CHILD - Chapter Four - Sandusky

How many pasts can a person have?

All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow

Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0311.13


	7. Sandusky

**EDITOR'S NOTE: Parental Warning – Language and Graphic References**

**Chapter Four**

TRIGUN:  
**MOON CHILD****  
****Sandusky**

**By R. A. Stott**

"So, what city donated you, friend?" Lexington asked the new traveler with them. He was the former core unit from the Micro Plant they had used to save the girl core unit from the destroyed town of Turnbuckle. He was anything what the ladies had expected a Plant to look like. He was balding, and looked more like a CPA or a banker in a cavalry uniform than a former energy induction unit.

"Hoboken," he said in a strange accent. "Part of 'Jersey Power and Light." Lexington nodded his head and smiled.

"Not a bad name to take," Lexington said as he typed it into the console. "You're from outside of Neo New York, ea?"

The smaller Plant shook his head. "Yea, I was da first unit brought in after da President's Day attack. Dey had me along da new waterfront, so I got da best view of da rebuildin' of da lower south side o'da Big Apple."

"Did you understand any of that?" Meryl asked Millie. Millie simply shook her head no.

"Funny, I have a grandpa named Hoboken," a bewildered Millie said.

---------------------------------

The thomas kneeled down to let its rider off. His long feathered jacket dragged along the ground as he approached the ridge he had stopped at. He looked down the far side and saw a settlement to the northwest and desert to the east and south. The area was spotted with ship debris that scattered across the landscape.

He adjusted his wide brimmed hat so that only his left eye could see the valley. Reaching behind himself he pulled out a long pike-like staff. He held it out and concentrated.

"Show me," he said.

The pike snapped and sizzled in his hand. To him the sky shot from white-blue to black. Below, the valley changed and reverted to an earlier time. A moon could be seen, and the area was clear of any presence of SEEDS induced wreckage.

"Show me," he said again. The vision changed slightly. A red glow was descending on the planet. Streamers of yellow white light streaked across the sky. A hellish fire swept down along from the ridge as some sort of burning fluid rained down on the scrub grass that had been there.

In the valley, a ship approached at an odd angle. Its landing legs were deployed, but since it was flying horizontally to the ground, as soon as one leg grabbed the surface, the ship spun wildly in the air and split into multiple sections.

"Slow," he said. The image of the disintegrating ship slowed to a crawl. He could see components, equipment, and Coldsleep tubes scattering across the virgin desert. Towards the rear of the sections, the familiar bulb shaped Plants started to become visible as the ship's hull that covered them flew apart. One Plant's section struck the ground and spun wildly before exploding in a shower of sparks and shrapnel. The other two units seemed to hold together as the section of ship they remained connected to skip twice before burying itself in the loose soil where he had seen the settlement earlier.

"Stop," he now said. The vision he was witnessing froze. While keeping the pike out in front of himself, he reached behind himself and pulled out an ornate set of binoculars. He spied back towards where the first Plant had been rendered into near dust. A wicked grin crossed his yellowish teeth which he ground as he spotted what he was seeking. He took the end of the pike and stabbed into the dirt. He then removed one of two orbs that were at the top of it and entered the dark frozen world he was seeing.

He scrambled down the rocky surface of the ridge, avoiding pockets of stiff flames and burning ship parts. He stopped at one point and looked through the binoculars and the orb at his surroundings. He looked towards a section of the wrecked Plant that looked like it was about to crumble and chuckled. He walked over to it and checked under a rock.

A distorted face gazed back at him.

He smiled.

To the left of the grizzly find was a hand. He took it and removed three fingers. He discarded the rest. He then turned his attention to the Plant machinery hanging above him. He pulled out a pair of gloves and examined the dangling parts that were once part of the central core of the unit. He pulled on three rods until they clattered to the ground – each rod pulled caused his gloves to smoke as he yanked them. He then picked them up one by one and placed them in the tube sleeve that the pike was held in and foisted them over his shoulder. Finally, he moved back towards the hole that he had entered this rip in time by.

As he attempted to step out, something yanked him back. He took the sleeve off and exited the dark time zone. He reached back in and tried again to remove the sleeve. It held tight. He yanked, pulled and swore. Finally, the top slid through the hole, but the bottom acted as if it were anchored. He twisted it, pried it and finally tore it out of the hole. It bounced along the ground and landed near the thomas, with one of the rods jabbing into the ground. The creature screamed in pain and collapsed dead.

"Damn," he cursed. He placed the orb back on the end of his pike and removed it from the ground.

"Continue," he then said to the still world in his shadow hold.

Inside the shattered containment vessel where the three rods had been, bright lights flashed. It then detonated like an atomic bomb going off.

The ground shook around his feet outside the void where the world was going to hell. Pieces of old ship suddenly appeared around him, and the settlement vanished as if it had never been there.

"Ah, that was good!" he whispered. He gathered up the sleeve and rods and stuck the pike back into it. He removed a box from a satchel he had draped over the thomas' back. He placed the three fingers into it and sealed it shut. He slung the satchel and sleeve over his back and began to walk into the desert. Behind him, the hole remained sizzling away as it slowly decayed and shrunk.

---------------------------------

The Tunnel Steamer rolled along. Their destination was Turkey Flats, a small community north of Augusta that resembled the layout of Turnbuckle. Sara had a premonition that the next clue would turn up there to this evil force. In the meantime, she was giving Millie a check-over with her pocket scanner.

"So, how is Nicholas Junior?" she gleefully asked. Sara smirked and shook her head.

"There is no sign that it's a he or she yet, though it is only one child," the officer said. "Still quite healthy and doing well."

Meryl laughed from the doorway to the small med-unit they were in. "You're amazing Sara. How is it you know about pregnancy, yet not about cigarettes?"

Sara shrugged. "It's my training I guess," she said while checking over some readings. "Dealing with a pregnant person is something an officer of the Security Force needs to do from time to time. Cigarettes just aren't one of them."

"Pregnant? Who's pregnant? You said you were going to give me something for this headache!"

Sara looked back and was shocked to see Meryl sitting where Millie had just been.

"What the…" Sara said. "What are you doing here? Where's Millie?"

"Millie?" Meryl asked with a pained but puzzled look. "Who's Millie?"

Sara was about to ask her what she meant when she suddenly had an earful of wailing to deal with.

"DAMN IT NOOO!! BRING HER BACK!! BRING HER BACK!!" someone was crying in her head. The Tunnel Steamer then screeched to a halt, tossing the passengers about.

Lexington fell into the room shaking his head from hitting something with it. "Did you hear that?" he asked. "Is everyone okay back here?"

Sara was helping Meryl up. "Possibly – have you seen Millie?"

Lexington looked back through the doorway back into the lounge. "I thought she was back here with you," he said.

Sara looked about in a slight panic. "She was, but then she was gone, and Meryl was asking for pain killers and not knowing who Millie was."

"BRING HER BAAAAACK!" the voice wailed again.

Meryl looked up. "Who the hell was that?" she asked looking a bit pale. "And who the hell is this Millie you keep asking me about?"

Sara and Lexington looked at one another with concern. "She's your friend and partner from Bernardelli," Sara told her.

Meryl got a strange look on her face. "Partner? Those cheap tightwads at BUNY wouldn't send me a partner if I begged them!"

Sara just stared at her. "BUNY?" she asked.

Meryl pulled out a cigarette and lit it. "Yea, Bernardelli, Unger, Newman and Young Insurance and Casualty. I've told ya that before."

Lexington stood back. "What's wrong with this picture?" he said into Sara's head. A chirp behind him made him head back into the lounge. Sara followed.

"Hey - how about that headache pill?" Meryl yelped. "Aw to hell with them, I'll find it myself."

Sara found Lexington at the console to the screen. A new face was on it.

"Sara, this is Photon," Lexington told her. "She is the assistant to the Chairman. Photon, tell her what you just told me."

The young girl on the screen nodded. "About 10 minutes ago, we all felt a break in the space/time continuum approximately 50 iles northwest of your position. We also now sense a space anomaly within range of the break, and we no longer feel two Plants that were operational in a settlement named Twenty-Forth Dai. And now we seem to be having problems with one of our witnesses for the trail." Sara could still hear the wailing of the man begging to 'bring her back'.

"We're experiencing the same situation," Sara reported. "We seem to be missing a member of our crew. Millie Thompson seems to have vanished…"

"I TELL YOU I DON'T KNOW ANY MILLIE!" Meryl shouted from the back cabin and slammed the door shut. Sara turned back towards the monitor.

"Also, we seem to remember her, but her own partner doesn't," she added.

Photon nodded. "I would say we have had a chronal event. Can you divert to that location?"

Lexington checked the layout of the tunnels. "We'll have to back up an ile to this junction, but yes, there seems to be a tunnel in that direction."

The door popped open to the rear cabin. Meryl trudged out making a slight clinking sound and with a noticeable limp. Sara looked at her trying to figure what was making that sound.

"What?" Meryl asked the staring looks she was getting. As she turned to face them, her left leg squeaked. Sara finally saw that her leg was metal with a false foot making the clinking sound.

"Meryl! Your leg!" Sara said with surprise.

Meryl looked down at her left leg and knocked it with her fist, making a hollow metallic sound. "Yea, I guess this tin piece of crap's making too much noise again. I'm gonna have to oil that knee again." She sighed then noticed the looks she was still getting.

"Okay – let me guess… you didn't know I had this," she said waving at the appendage. Sara and Lexington shook their heads no. Meryl gritted her teeth.

"Damn it! What is going on today! I told you two how I lost it the first time I ran into that shit-for-brains Vash!" She really started to steam when she could tell that the two before her obviously had no clue what she was talking about.

"Get us up there Lexington," Sara ordered. "Quickly!"

If anything, backing the Tunnel Steamer was not the easiest thing to do. It constantly wanted to sway the wrong way as they slowly moved the ile it took to get back to the junction. Nearly an hour later, they started at full power for where Twenty-Forth Dai should be.

Sara pondered the changes she had seen in just the last few hours. Where had Millie gone? Why was Meryl the way she was? What was the anomaly, and where did it tie into what had happened there in Twenty-Forth Dai? She looked around – it had been nearly an hour, and at the speed they were traveling, they would be there soon. Meryl seemed to have vanished back towards her cabin. Sara walked back to them and knocked on the door.

"If yer lookin' for me, I'm in this room here," a voice that sounded like Meryl's said from the room next door – the one that had been given to Millie. Sara entered and found Meryl sitting backwards in a chair, a whiskey flask in her hand, her head resting on her crossed arms along the chair's back rest. Her cheeks and nose were flush, and a cigarette she was holding in her fingers was nearly ready to burn them.

"What the hell is that thing?" she asked without really moving much. Sara had to notice what she was staring at through her bleary eyes. What she saw shocked her.

"What is that doing here?" Sara asked herself. "All things dealing with Millie had seemed to vanish earlier… all but this?" She reached over and tugged on the massive stun gun that the large woman had slung with ease.

"Careful," the drunk Meryl sloshed. "Damn thing nearly killed me earlier." She slipped her head a little lower between her arms. "Sara, who was I? Before I mean… was I different when this Millie was here?"

Sara looked back at the Insurance Girl. "You didn't drink… you didn't smoke…" – she said that as she knocked the cigarette out of her hand before it could hurt her – "…and you didn't swear like a mechanic covered in hydraulic fluid."

"And I didn't have a tin leg," Meryl added. "Damn that ass Vash… I hate him…"

Sara leaned against the door jam. "You didn't before."

Meryl's bleary face looked up at her. "What are you sayin'?" she slurred. "I loved Vash the stumbler? Vash the Bumblebee? Vash the what the hell we used to call him? I loved V – Vish – Vishnu?"

Sara mussed up Meryl's already messy hair. "Come on girl, time to sober you up." She grabbed her by the arms and dragged her into the shower.

The nearest the Steamer could get to Twenty-Forth Dai was about 5 iles. But as soon as they arrived at the station, Sara could feel a sense of something flowing. It was ebbing away, but the flow was still there. She headed for the caboose to get her thomas as Lexington opened up the portal out of the tunnel. She found the sliding ramp down already when she got back to it. Meryl was standing in front of a thomas – Millie's thomas – much to her surprise, just like the stun gun, another object of their missing comrade was still there.

"We have no reason to have this thomas here, do we?" Meryl asked. "I mean, Hoboken just joined us at our last stop. He didn't have a thomas – he rode on the back of Lexington's. So why would this thomas be here, right?" Sara could see that Meryl was crying as her shoulders were heaving up and down.

"Sara, tell me about her, would you?" she asked. "What was she like?"

Sara cleared her throat. "I've only know her for a few days Meryl. But in the short time we were together, I found her kind, resourceful, generous, and already a good friend to have. She was full of life. Always happy…"

"Like a big little sister," Meryl finished. She hung her head against the rail that kept the thomas in its stall and started to cry hard. "Oh Sara, I don't want to forget someone like that…" She scuffed the floor with her tin leg and hammered the rail with her fist. "And I don't want to be like THIS DAMN IT!" She slid down the face of the stall crying her heart out.

A large hand rested on her shoulder. Meryl suddenly found herself being lifted off the floor by Lexington, who held her and rocked her back and forth like a baby needing cradling. Sara led the thomases out as Meryl released her anguish over Lexington's shoulder.

"The sooner we solve this mystery," he quietly told the petite woman in his arms, "the sooner we'll get things back in order for you."

"I don't like what I've become," Meryl cursed through her tears.

"You remember then?" Sara asked as she brought out the last thomas.

Meryl draped herself over Lexington's shoulder. "No, damn it," she said. "But I can feel that I was a better person – just by the way you two look at me. Why do you two remember when I don't… why are there these damn reminders about a woman I don't remember? What the hell is going on here?"

"That is MY question, kid," a man's voice asked. Meryl grabbed Lexington's shoulder. That voice… It couldn't be. She scrambled to get out of the large Plant's arms. As she fell to the ground, she whipped out a pair of her Derringers and pointed them at the man behind them.

"DAMN YOU!" she yelled. "What are you doing here!?"

"That's my question as well," Wolfwood said as he lit a cigarette.

---------------------------------

The walk through the desert was long and hot, but the man didn't feel it. His destination was a wrecked portion of ship west of Violet Town. He would have been there by now, if only his thomas hadn't been roasted by the rods he now carried. They must have been still quite radioactive, as small creatures he would pass would squirm and die if they didn't run away fast enough.

It amused him.

The ship section looked like Swiss cheese. He climbed inside and headed for a room towards the rear labeled FABRICATIONS.

---------------------------------

The communication screen showed a puzzled Photon blinking at the man in black seated between Sara and Lexington with Meryl still training her guns on him.

"You know, that is impossible," she said.

"I agree," Sara said. "He can't be in two places at once, can he?"

Meryl blinked. "What? This piece of trash has a twin?"

"I love you too," Wolfwood grunted. "Geeze, Meryl. I was just following orders!"

"SHUT UP ASSHOLE! OR I'LL CREASE ANOTHER OF YOUR EARS!" she screamed.

Sara looked at Wolfwood. He indeed was missing a section of his right ear. He noticed the officer looking at it and touched it.

"You know, I don't remember that, but I know you did do it," he said while drawing on his cigarette and glancing over his shoulder at Meryl.

Sara stepped back. "What? What did you say?"

Wolfwood leaned back in his seat. "Hey, last I remembered, I was in a church. Then I was in this cave we're in now." He looked up at Sara. "And I sure don't remember a pretty thing like you in our gang."

Sara looked about. "Watch them," she told Lexington. She then headed for the cabins.

She opened the one Millie used. Nothing there – the stun gun had vanished.

She ran through the steamer towards the back, knocking Hoboken down in the process. She skidded to a halt back by the caboose and looked in. She was shocked to see the forth thomas fade from view. She slapped a com switch on the wall.

"Lexington, we must hurry!" she barked. "Time is correcting again!"

"Then there's little time to be wasted," he answered. "Close the caboose and get back inside."

It took her a moment to gather up the thomases and get the caboose shut, but she was aboard in less than a minute. As she shut the door, she felt the Steamer lurch backwards slightly. She headed for the bridge, again knocking Hoboken down in the process.

"What are you going to do?" she asked Lexington when she found him in the pilot's seat.

"When you need speed, there's only one thing you can do," he said. He pushed a controller he held in his left hand forwards, while pulling back on another with his right. The Steamer made a hard turn to the right and aimed for the hole in the wall. He now shoved the right handle forwards and stomped on a pedal on the floor. The machine jumped and built up speed at an incredible rate. The rock wall never stood a chance against it.

The reddish-brown hull of the Steamer gleamed in the twin-sun light. As if launched like a rocket from the cave, it left a plume of smoky dust behind as it roared across the hilly terrain.

Inside, the ride was rough. Unlike the smooth tunnels which the ship was designed to do speed in, it wasn't meant to traverse the rocks and soil of the outer world. Meryl fell back against a wall. Wolfwood saw his chance and jumped her. He had two of her Derringers from her cloak before she could react. Her own pair had fallen to the floor away from her. She watched him rear up over her steady as a rock, but allowing his knees to take the jolts of the ship's movements.

"You bastard! Go ahead! Kill me!" Meryl shouted. "After what you did to Vash, I didn't want to see your face again!"

Wolfwood sneered. "So? I just shot his knee off. He killed me!"

"That's right," she spat. "How is it you're here again?"

He shrugged. "Quirk of fate, just pure damn luck, I don't know. But it sure beats the crap out of being dead!" He aimed the small guns at her head. "Bye bye Miss Stryfe!"

There was a click to his right. He looked over and stared.

"Who are you!?" he yelped.

Sara and Lexington heard what sounded like an explosion in the cabin behind the bridge. She drew her standard gun and rushed back as Lexington continued to pilot. "Keep going," she yelled in his mind. "I'll tell you this way if I need help!"

"Understood," he replied. "Take care."

Sara slid the door open. She found Meryl on the floor. She was looking up at her with a frightened look on her face, and she was spattered in blood, as was a good portion of the cabin. At the other end was Hoboken. He was holding a shotgun that was still smoking. When she cleared the small hallway that joined the bridge to the rear section, she found Wolfwood lying against the forward bulkhead, his legs draped across Meryl's, and the side of his chest and part of his head peppered in buckshot. The Derringers were still in his hands.

"I – I had ta do it," Hoboken said. "He was about ta shoot her."

Sara holstered her gun. "It's okay," she said. She looked down at Meryl, who was shivering at the sight of the body draped over her. "He wasn't the Wolfwood you knew anyway," Sara added as she moved him off her.

Lexington felt something as they approached the crest of a hill and pulled the Steamer to a halt. Something was missing ahead. He pulled up the charts that the rear console has shown him on his navigation screen. There was suppose to be a settlement ahead, but all he could find was a blast crater. The scanner did also show that there was something near the ridge that was giving off strange energy readings.

"Found it Sara," he said in his mind to her. "Get ready to depart."

Sara was first to the exit hatch. Once outside, she ran to the front of the machine and saw what Lexington had seen – a crater. But she felt the energy flow nearby and went to investigate it.

As she walked towards the edge of the ridge, she found the body of the thomas laying with a pair of buzzhawks beside it. All seemed dead.

Meryl and Hoboken came around to the front of the Steamer. "Damn, more bodies," Meryl cursed while still wiping blood off her face. Sara raised her hand.

"Wait there," she said as she pulled her small scanner off her belt. It shrieked. She next pulled out her mini tool kit and removed a long bladed knife. Using the scanner, she located the item that was making it squeal and pried it out with the knife. A small black rod fell out of the dirt.

Lexington came around the Steamer. Sara waved him over. "No Meryl, stay there!" she repeated herself as the Insurance Girl started to follow the big man.

"Well shit!" she cursed. "What's the big secret? Why can't I come over?"

"Because you'd be fried like this thomas was," Sara bluntly said. She showed the piece to Lexington who looked puzzled but not surprised.

"That's a section of containment rod from a Plant," he said. "A big one from the looks of it."

Sara showed him the readings from her scanner. "Look at the rate of decay," she said. "Barely 1/1000th of a percentage point."

He agreed with her. "As if it had just been pulled from a Plant and dropped there. A large Plant's explosion would account for the crater down there, but it obviously happened a long time ago. From the growth of the weeds down there, I'd say that came from the initial landings."

Sara sprayed the isotope inhibitor across the area then drowned the small rod section in it. She then stepped up to the flow she felt before.

By this time, it was only a wavy line floating at her chest level. She reached out and touched it.

She suddenly found herself in the dark, flames and wreckage all around her. She saw the remains of two Plants burning off to the northwest. The center of the crater was red hot, as if melted. In the sky above them, the atmosphere itself was afire in the shape of a ring. She pulled her hand back and grimaced.

"Someone has altered time," she said to the others. She felt around as far as her mind could take her. She felt Knives. He was in Demitrihi. She felt someone named Legato – he was in a town call Mercy near the southern border. Vash was weak, but was still readable. He seemed to be bedridden. A young girl was tending to him, and he seemed totally invalid.

Then she felt the same energy that she had found by the thomas. It was emanating from the hull of a ship to the west of them. There was a strange… Plantoid there?

"What are you doing there?" she demanded of the stranger.

"Ah, Officer Montgomery I presume?" he said while continuing to work. "It is a pleasure I'm sure."

"Who are you?" she demanded. "You were the man that was spying on us outside of Turnbuckle, weren't you?"

The man chuckled and started a lathe spinning. "My dear, I am your future. I am your death."

Meryl saw an angry look move across Sara's face and stepped back into Hoboken, who again was dropped to the ground. The last time she had seen a look like that, it had come from Vash. Sara's eyes were burning.

"I'll ask you once again, child," she demanded, this time sending a heated flame through her though transmission, which caused the man to drop a section of steel he was running in the lathe. He spat a curse and picked up the metal section.

"My name is SANDUSKY!" he shouted in her mind, sending the same fiery blow in her direction as she had sent him. "Sandusky the Forge! And I am the last one to be called a child here, child!"

Sara held her ground and shielded her mind from the torment sent her way from across the desert. She reached down and pulled the silver gun from her holster. She held it up, only to find that it had started to vanish at the top.

"Of course," she said to herself. "It would be returning to Augusta where Vash dropped it according to the history tapes."

She closed her eyes and concentrated. "You're – not – going – anywhere!" she grimaced, knitting her brow and gathering her strength. The gun solidified in her hand.

"Now," she quietly said as she held the gun out. She pointed to the west then raised it slightly.

Lexington ran back to the two near the Steamer. "Get down!" he shouted.

The side panels popped off. The gun seemed to meld into her arm, and long feathery wings sprouted from the growing muzzle. A ring of energy spread, and Meryl could have sworn she felt heat pouring from it.

"What are you doing!?" shouted Sandusky through her head.

"This!" she replied, as she sent a salvo of energy off in his direction. She moved the beam up and down once to give it a crack-the-whip bend to it. She quickly reverted the Angel Arm back to a normal looking gun and looked back at the wavering line that was about to vanish.

"Lexington, come here," she ordered.

The tall Plant stepped over to her side. "Do you think you got him?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said. "That was why I bounced the beam once. He's able to split time. My mother could do that as well, and she taught me how to do it. I'll need you to observe with me, to see just what he did."

She walked some distance down from where the line in the air was vanishing. She held out the silver gun again, but this time, she concentrated on the isotope at the end of it.

"Show me," she said as her hair flew about her head.

A dark line formed from the end of the gun. It widened out and grew larger as she lowered the gun to the ground then raised it up again. The image was that of the same area at night.

"When was this?" Lexington asked.

"Last night… I need to get it to move back though…" Sara strained hard. The image started to flash and wobble as the sun and moons started to come up from the wrong horizon in rapid succession. A flash of light while seeing a night image made her stop her time regression.

"Show me," she said again. With that, the view showed the ship tumbling into pieces, then as the one plant broke up it suddenly exploded in an atomic rupture.

"Stop," Sara said as the blast was heading up the hill towards them. "Back - slow."

The billowing superheated flames crawled back towards the epicenter of the devastation. As the last flicker of flames were sucked back into the containment base of the ruptured Plant unit, Lexington noticed three bright lights that were there, then suddenly were not.

"Stop the image!" he said. "Take it forward extra slowly."

Sara nodded and concentrated. The image started to crawl slowly in time. The Plant shattered in an internal explosion. The Plantoid could be seen falling out of the unit in pieces. With the bulb section nearly gone, the three bright white lights suddenly appeared.

"Stop it there!" Lexington shouted. "Now take it back to just before those three lights can be seen in the containment unit's base."

The view crept back to just before the lights appeared then back to just after they started. Only the briefest streak could be seen in the hellish red light of shipfall.

"He took the containment rods out!" Sara snarled. "Without those, the remaining energy in the Plant's base containment vessel would explode!"

"There's no way to stop him, is there?" Lexington grumbled.

"No, he stopped time, so he's just that slight blur," she said. "We've got to stop that explosion though!"

Lexington looked about the universe within Sara's hole then looked back at the Steamer. "I've got an idea," he said. "How long can you hold this like this?"

Sara looked at the hole. "I don't know… maybe an hour. I've never tried it like this before."

He patted her on the back. "Keep it up. I'll be right back."

"I'm not going anywhere," she yelled back at him as he dashed off for the Steamer.

Meryl could not stand waiting any longer. She stepped over towards the dark void that Sara was generating and peered in. The hairs on her arms tingled as she glimpsed at the far past.

"I wouldn't get much closer," Sara said. "The radiation being generated by this field would cook you just like that rod piece did to the thomas."

"What is all this?" Meryl asked her.

Sara sighed. "Widen," she ordered. The isotope on the end of the gun spun faster. The dark field grew twice its former size. Meryl could now see the wreckage that was in mid-strewn and held in time by the power Sara held.

"That's horrible," Meryl said. Sara smiled. That had almost sounded like the Meryl she knew.

"This is the night that your ancestors came to this world," she told her. "This is how it looked across most of this planet. But someone else did what I'm doing here now, and changed this one spot for their own gains. In doing so, they changed history. Do you see that section over there? The one with the two Plants in it?"

Meryl only nodded.

"I suspect that would have been the section that would have become the settlement we were looking for. But this Sandusky person removed some control rods from that Plant in front of us. In doing so, the resulting explosion wiped out the other two Plants, and anyone here in their Coldsleep tubes."

"And some of those people would have been related to this Millie we're missing?" Meryl asked. Sara nodded.

"We've got to save them!" Meryl shouted, nearly jumping into the field. Hoboken dragged her back. "We've got to get everyone out of there! I don't want to do this all alone!"

"GET BACK!" Sara shouted in her mind. "Dragging all the Coldsleep tubes out isn't possible! I can't hold this field up that long. And besides, bringing them out won't solve the problem, only make them worse! I think Lexington has a solution. Just wait."

Meryl fell to her knees and sobbed. She looked up as Lexington walked by. He looked down at her and smiled.

"Don't worry. This should do the trick!" He climbed through the hole and looked down the hill.

Sara looked over what he was carrying – a tool box and a long pair of boxes.

"Those are the spare control rods to our Plant unit?" she asked. "Are you sure they'll fit?"

Lexington opened the boxes. He removed one and rolled it in his fingers. "Nope, guaranteed not to. They're from a Micro Plant. They're too thin, and 6 inches too short, and they're cold to boot, but they're the best we've got." He started down towards the Plant section.

"Hurry," she told him in his mind. "I wouldn't want you in there if I loose control here."

He looked back at her. "I don't think I like the sounds of that… Have you ever lost control before?"

"Twice," she replied, "while training with my mother in the simulator back home."

He looked back at the Plant. "And how many times have you actually tried this?"

"Twice."

"Swell," he said, and started to run for his target. Once there, he started by taking a caliper out and measuring the holes he needed to fill. He took a set of coring tools he had and slipped them over three of the rods he was carrying. He then inserted them into the holes. The clinking he was hearing as they dropped to the wall of the holes did not thrill him. They needed to be centered since they weren't the correct diameter, and laying on one side wasn't going to help matters. He got out a hammer.

Hoboken looked into the gap in the universe. He looked at Sara, who was concentrating on the task at hand.

"You's alright Officer?" he asked. "I'm okay here, right? Da radiation shouldn't bother me."

Sara nodded. "Can you see how Lexington is doing?" she asked. "The barrel of the gun is blocking my view."

The sound of a hammer banging on metal could be heard.

"Ooh… that doesn't sound good!" Hoboken mused. "Tapping might help, but pounding on it like dat… Dem carbon rods are kinda fragile." He looked about.

"Yo! – lookit dat!" he exclaimed while pointing up around the edge of the opening.

"What?" Sara asked. "I can't see up there since my head is outside this hole I'm making."

"It's dat other yoyo. Ya froze him tryin' ta take da rods out'a here!" Before she could stop him, Hoboken was in the hole and running up the hill towards the other.

"Owwoo!" Sara shouted. The sudden mix-up with Hoboken nearly made her loose her concentration. The hole slipped in size. Lexington looked up and saw she was in trouble and quickly collected his tools.

Hoboken looked at the man who was outside the barrier. He was lifting the rods he had removed out of this universe. He reached down and tugged on them. His hands instantly smoked as the radiation burned them.

"YAAAAA!" he shouted and released the bars. In Sandusky's time line, this was what caused the rods to act held in place, then flung them away.

Her concentration was now shattered. Sara was having a time just controlling a small hole, let alone a large one. Lexington ran for all he was worth for the quickly shrinking hole.

Meryl leapt back as Lexington's tool box was tossed through the warp first and scattered across the ground where she had been sitting. It was quickly followed by Lexington himself as he dove through. The hole then slapped shut, snapping the gun from Sara's grasp. She quickly sensed where the covers were and the screws that held it on, and collected the hissing firearm as the isotope cooled down.

"You didn't see Hoboken, did you?" she asked Lexington. He looked about. A man was walking up the hill towards them from the wrecked Plant.

"Is that him…? Hey, the Plant is still there!" Lexington shouted.

Sara looked about. The settlement was there again as well. She looked back at Meryl. She was standing back a few feet, having gotten out of the way of the flying tools. But the blood that had splattered her was now gone. She quickly felt the world in her mind. Knives was again being taken by Vash to the Alpha Base. The evil powers of Legato were silent again. And Sandusky…

"Oh, very well played," his voice rang. "It was good of you to fix that mess. I can't tell you how dreadfully sorry I am for letting that happen… but then again, it would have anyway. By the way, you are a good shot. You managed to ruin the other half of my ship. Unfortunately, the forge remains intact. And since I will need this forge, I'll be moving now… unless you want to try and hit a moving target from that distance? You just might hit an innocent bystander that way!" He cackled until she forced him out of her mind.

"Meryl? Where is everybody?"

Millie came around the front of the Steamer, but that was as far as she got. Meryl was squeezing the life out of her before she could stop her. They fell to the ground, both of them crying.

"Oh god, I remember it all," Meryl wept. "I remember it all! How could I have forgotten you?"

Millie stroked her head. "Don't cry Meryl. I was always there. I was just kinda like a ghost."

Meryl looked up at her. "You… you were?"

"Uh huh!" she cheerfully said.

"You mean, even when Wolfwood was… you know…"

Millie smiled and looked down. "That wasn't him. That was a bad imitation of Nicholas. I felt him – the real him. He was crying to have me come back. He's an angel you know… with these beautiful black wings. He still smokes though…"

Lexington looked down on the man who was coming up the ridge. He instinctively reached up as the man tossed something at him. He looked down to find one of his coring tools he had used on the Plant.

"I tink you's need dees," the man said.

"Hoboken, is that you?" Lexington asked. "You've put on some weight, haven't you?"

"Hey, you get to be 350 years old and see how YOU look!" he laughed.

Meryl looked at him confused. "How old?"

"He was 200 when he was with us the first time," Sara told her. "But you got trapped in the past when my hole shut."

"And I'll tell you," he said tossing the other two coring tools to Lexington, "you should'a been there. You are amazin' son. The job you did on dat Plant was amazin'. You should'a heard it. It rang like an alarm clock for 24 days."

Sara looked at Lexington. "Rang?"

He laughed and scratched his head. "Well, that's to be expected. The rods were too small, so when they were centered in the holes, they would bang about inside the tubes they were in like the clappers on a bell. I'm surprised that they didn't crack."

"Two of 'em did, but by dat time, there wasn't enough power left ta explode." Hoboken laughed. "I guess I was suppose ta be here as well, since I had ta revive many of da folk here."

Sara looked down at the settlement. "You did?"

He smirked. "Yea, both of dem Plants shut down. The auto systems turned dem off. I had ta get in d'ere and give 'em jump starts ta get t'ings goin' ag'in."

Millie stepped over to Hoboken. "Hi Grandpa!" she said with a cheery grin. "I haven't seen you since I was last up in Twenty-Forth Dai six years ago!"

"You know this man Millie?" Meryl asked.

"Well of course I do!" Millie said with a giggle. "He's my Grandpa Hoboken, remember? I told you I had one this morning. My family comes from Twenty-Forth Dai. I'll have to show it to you someday. It's a nice rural community!"

Hoboken shook his head. "Millie dear, its right down there. Your friends just saved it from annihilation!"

"Really?" she asked with a puzzled look. "I didn't know it was smoking!"

"ANNIHILATION, MILLIE!" shouted Meryl. "NOT INHILLATION!"

---------------------------------

Meryl sat in her room pondering the ceiling. The Steamer had returned to the tunnel and was now on a path towards where Sara had shot at Sandusky before. Travel was a bit slower than normal, as the tubes were still being made by the worms ahead.

Sara peeked in the opened door. "You okay?" she asked.

Meryl sighed. "I really do have to excuse myself, don't I?" she said.

Sara blinked. "What do you mean?"

"That swearing drunk smoking me earlier." She rolled over and looked at the wall. "Oddly enough, that was the way I used to be."

Sara leaned against the door jam. "I kind of figured that."

Meryl looked over her shoulder at her. "Oh?"

"Sure, then that six foot nine inch angel was dropped on you."

Meryl laughed. "Yea, I guess you're right. Once Millie had been assigned to me, I changed my ways greatly. I had a responsibility. And she was always in need of guidance."

Sara sighed. "You'd be surprised at how some people who need guidance actually are the guides themselves."

Meryl huffed. "A good friend will affect you in good ways," she said. "I don't ever want to loose her that way again. And you know what Sara?"

"Humm?"

"I can remember the whole time she was gone or wasn't here - The whole time - It frightens me. And now I have a hard time remembering everything we did before. It's unfair. My feelings towards Vash… Did he have his knee shot off by Wolfwood? I remember both yes and no. It's unfair damn it… It's unfair."

---------------------------------

In the desert near a borax mine, a lone figure raised a shotgun. It had a special section below the barrel that hummed and whined. A box cover popped off, and the night shrouded dune was lit up by the glow of a long isotope rod.

Sandusky held the gun erect, and transformed it. The angel arm was twice the size of the smaller guns Vash and Knives used, as ordered by D'two. Now for a test.

The next morning, an urgent message to Millie Thompson and Meryl Stryfe was received. The Cold Heart Borax Mine had been destroyed, as was the mountain it had been inside. They were to find out if this had been the work of the notorious outlaw Vash the Stampede again.

Meryl tore the message to pieces.

oOo

**Next Episode**

_**Memory - it can play tricks on you. **_

Dual memories will make you wonder which one is the real one. Do you believe one memory? Do you believe both?

When memories get confused, which one is telling the truth, which one is lying, and which one do you believe?

Which one do you _**want**__** to believe? **_

Next Episode of TRIGUN: MOON CHILD - Chapter Five - Time Span

What if they both are telling the truth? What then?

All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow

Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0311.14


	8. Time Span

**Chapter Five**

TRIGUN:  
**MOON CHILD****  
****Time Span**

**By R. A. Stott**

There was no station to get out of the tunnel where they stopped.

Millie clung to Meryl. Meryl had a death grip on Millie's arm. Both were at the point of screaming, but managed to just quake in fear as they watched Lexington as he had a massive worm in front of them position itself to make an exit hole to the right side of the tunnel. He noticed them behind himself and smiled. He patted the worm on the side near the 'head'.

"Now girls, Bonnie here wouldn't hurt a fly!" he said. He nodded towards the other end and added, "Bob on the other hand can get crabby, so I'd watch him!"

The far end of the same beast turned and showed a row of teeth as it growled. The Bonnie end reared back and growled as well. Meryl squeaked while Millie covered her with her mop of hair.

"Lexington, stop that," Sara said half laughing half scolding. "Just get the worm to clear us a hole."

"Yes m'am," he said a bit ashamed at his antics. He pointed at the wall and sent a telepathic message to the beast. Nasty smelling ooze came from the mouth and 'head' section of Bonnie as it hit the wall of stone. The rock melted and slid down the beast's gullet.

It took the worm about an hour to clear a path to the surface, then another hour for the tunnel to cool enough to walk up it. Lexington sent Bonnie/Bob off to the north making more tunnels.

As they exited the hole, Sara saw the results of her handiwork with Vash's gun. There was a section of ship laying in the sand some yarz from the tunnel with a streak that the beam had made running along the ground and up the side of a hill. She thought about that beam line. She'd have to check and see if it did any other damage.

"It looks like any other wrecked ship on this planet," Meryl said looking at the rubble.

"He came here for a reason," Sara noted. She looked at the side of the hull. She jogged over to a section that had a number of plug slots in it and pulled out her portable scanner. She plugged the unit in and keyed a few buttons. A spark erupted from the top of the panel, but otherwise it lit up all over.

"SEEDS Manufacturing Ship number Sigma 981-A," Sara read. "Designated as an autobuilder…"

"Autobuilder?" Meryl asked.

Sara tapped on the hull. "The idea was that a ship like this would land ahead of the rest of the fleet and start constructing shelters and buildings from the local terrain and materials. They also doubled as portable workshops. They were supposed to have been the repair ships for the Plants, especially those class 'A' types."

"Class A?" Millie asked.

Lexington smirked. "Ever see a Plant that looks like a Plant within a Plant?" The girls nodded. "That's a Class A unit – the type that generates enough energy to power a major city."

Meryl hopped down in the trench the beam had sliced in the soil. "Speaking of generating energy," she said to Sara, "how did you do this?"

Sara looked at the line. "You mean how did I fire the Angel Arm?"

Meryl grabbed her elbows and rocked back and forth a bit – the term 'Angel Arm' gave her a queasy feeling. "Well, yes… I remember Vash telling me how it was when he fired his. It was kind of all over the place. How come you seem to be able to control it so much better?"

Sara pulled the silver gun from its holster and examined it. "It's simply a case of mind over matter," she said. "If I hadn't controlled the shot, the release of energy would have blown us all clear of the hill back at Twenty-Forth Dai."

The gun flicked in her hand. She suddenly found herself hanging on for dear life as it yanked her to the left, then to the right.

Meryl jumped at her trying to hold her up. "Sara! What's wrong?" she yelped.

"I – don't – KNOW!" she yelled as the dragging gun made her kick a stone and nearly fall over onto Meryl. The gun finally settled on a spot across the trench from them. She pulled her scanner out and held it in the direction the gun was pulling her towards.

"There's a radioactive source about 10 feet over the edge of the trench Lexington," Sara said. The tall Plantoid jumped over and looked around. "No, over to your right," Sara guided him. "A bit more… now in front of you a few feet…"

Lexington kicked the ground a bit. A small piece of black rod appeared out of the sand. Next to it was a small piece of something else.

"You'd better look at this," he said to her.

Sara handed the scanner to Meryl as she fought the gun back into its holster. She then took the scanner back and leapt over to Lexington's side. The scanner squealed again as she held it over the rod. She held her hand up to keep the girls away as she turned the rod section about with her dagger.

"This was clean cut, not broken," she said to Lexington. He grunted.

"What would you need to cut a rod like that down for?" he pondered. She tapped the gun in her holster and gestured back to it.

"The guns – both of them have the same carbon isotopes in them," she said. "With the right materials, the same thing could be made from this." She then noticed what Lexington was pointing at. A small whitish piece of something was near the rod section. She quickly scanned it.

Sara sat back and looked at the readings. She nearly got ill.

"That would be the material needed," she gagged. "Sandusky is building guns. And from the size of the rods being used, I'd say it's pretty big!"

Lexington grumbled. "He took 3 rods of the same size."

Sara looked skywards. "A small army of Angel Arm weapons?" she hinted.

"That would explain the Borax Mine disaster," Lexington stated. "From initial scans, it was a direct line beam, not the over blast that Vash was forced to fire."

"It takes a great deal of energy to control a beam of energy," Sara pondered. "Unless…"

Lexington looked up from the fragment. "A gravity wave?" he asked. Sara nodded.

"Gravity wave?" Millie asked. "What's that?"

Sara placed the rod in a shielded box and snapped it shut. "You two witnessed the explosion in Augusta, right?" she asked the Insurance Girls.

Millie bobbed her head up and down. Meryl held her hand to her head and thought hard. She was still having a hard time remembering the past clearly as one history, not the second one that had been forced on her.

"Oh come on Meryl," Millie scolded her. "How could you forget me dragging you away from the center of Augusta just before Mr. Vash blew up all over the place?"

The image of her being physically removed from the city on the back of a thomas flashed through Meryl's mind. It took a moment for the image of Millie hanging on to her to become clear as well. It also took another moment to dawn on her why she was being dragged out. She… she had wanted to know if Vash was okay? She clutched her face as the memory flowed back into her mind.

"I think she remembers now Miss Sara," Millie said as Meryl's eye drew small.

Sara shook her head. "You remember how it started out as a large spherical ball?" she asked.

Meryl nodded her head slightly. Millie scratched the back of her head. "I didn't see it at first – I was running the other way too fast."

"You wouldn't have been able to run fast enough if it had continued to build in that ball shape," Lexington said.

"That was the reason why the city of July was destroyed," Sara said. "The blast from the Angel Arm Cannon simply rolled over the town. The same would have happened in Augusta if Vash hadn't formed a gravity wave at the top of the gun. It redirected the energy up its line of fire and dispersed it… unfortunately, my moon was in the way, but that is what a gravity wave is supposed to do – draw energy, sending it along a beam of light."

Sara saw that Meryl was looking up at the sky, her hands still clutching her face. She too looked up and saw the fifth moon overhead staring back at her with the Plant-made hole glaring down on them. She sighed and returned to the second piece on the ground. She took a plastic bag and used it like a glove to pick it up. She pulled the pulled the bag over the item and sealed it shut.

"What is that?" Millie asked as Sara held the item up to examine it closer.

"Remains," was all she said as she stood up and placed the bag in her backpack.

---------------------------------

Sandusky walked beside a dusty trail-road that ran west towards the Grand Gabriel Mountains. There had been no traffic since he had first stepped onto the path in the desert plain that was heading in his direction. He had seen a few wild thomases and a rural bus on a crossroad, but nothing else.

He stopped at around noon. He looked southwest and smiled.

"Ah, find anything of interest my dear?" he asked Sara with his mind. "I'm sorry if I didn't clean up after myself. You did manage to hit part of my shop. But don't fret – I did manage to finish what I was doing there."

He felt what sounded like a door slamming in his head. He laughed.

There was a squeak. The door in his mind partly opened again.

"How many?" she asked him.

"Oh, you don't think I'd tell you, now do you?" he chortled while looking inside his feathered overcoat. A number of shotguns rattled together as they swung on a tether. He caught a glimpse of a flash of light on the horizon behind him.

"Excuse me my dear," he said to the distant officer, "but my ride is coming – good luck with your investigation!" He snapped his fingers and terminated the connection.

The vehicle looked like it had been constructed of spare parts off a high class recycling truck. It had shiny squarish chromed edged sections that didn't quite seem to fit together properly. The large aircraft type tires in the rear and the smaller buggy types up front made it also look a bit out of sorts shape wise. The driver seemed unconcerned by the appearance of her vehicle. She was in a sequined white jacket with a fur collar and cuffs, and she wore a large pair of sunglasses. Her long blond hair blew all over the seats, giving her a Medusa look as she slowed to let Sandusky in. He drew the pike and handed it to her.

"It worked like a charm, my dear," he told her in their minds. She smiled and took the pike from him placing it in a sleeve she had behind her in the jump seat.

"How is my sister?" she asked Sandusky. He showed her the shotguns.

"She seems beside herself and beside herself and beside herself…" he joked. She looked over her glasses at him as she tore off down the dirt path.

"You have a rather singular wit, Sandusky dear," she commented. "What was her output?"

"I only had the chance to test unit A," Sandusky said taking the first shotgun out. He held it out the side of the car and converted it to full Angel Arm mode.

"Are you going to fire that thing here?" the driver calmly asked.

"Do you mind?" he replied.

She smiled. "Don't scratch the paint, but go ahead."

He grinned under his mustache. "That's one of the joys of this model," he said. "The gun is so far out that you're nowhere near the actual blast. It saves on replacing shoes!"

The car tipped on two wheels as he let fly a salvo that played on the face of the far off mountains. The driver smirked and kept control as the vehicle dropped back on all four wheels.

"Whoa! Looks like I got something good over there," he noted as he saw a column of smoke billowing up in the distance. "Maybe it was a Steamer or fuel dump…"

"Nice power behind that shot, Sandusky. My sister must be in fine fettle." She watched him convert the gun back to normal and return it to his jacket.

"She didn't fuss much," he said with a grin. "And she divided nicely."

She grumbled a bit. "I'm troubled with this plan of having a piece of her being found by the officer," she noted. "What if she doesn't attempt to communicate with her?"

Sandusky placed his arm over her shoulder and shook her. "You know she will. That's the idea!"

The driver smiled. "You're sick, Sandy. I like that!"

---------------------------------

Sara sat and pondered the small piece of Plant they had found. Lexington joined her in the parlor section of the Steamer.

"You look troubled," he noted. She gave him a look that said 'Obviously'. She sighed.

"You don't know of a regeneration center around here, do you?" she asked him.

He laughed. "I've been meaning to install one in here," he said. "But, that doesn't mean we're out of luck. We're not far from New Oregon. I hear there is a large ship section with many components still intact that we might be able to use."

Meryl stuck her head in from the end of the hallway to the bedrooms. "You've gotta be kidding!" she yelped. "Considering what they only recently went through, are you sure that you want to go there?"

Sara blinked. "Why? What just happened there?"

"There was a sizable disaster there," Millie said. "And we didn't even have to report it, since they weren't covered by Bernardelli!"

Meryl gritted her teeth, but then sighed as she was right. How could you get coverage for a group of people the company hadn't even known existed?

"The fact of the matter is," Meryl stated with a bit more proper information, "up until about a year ago, the ship they were in was still flying. The Plants had kept it up in the air all this time."

Sara sat back, a look of shock on her face. "How many had there been?"

Meryl thought. "Two I think… This is weird… in one history, I remember being with Millie as we were caught in a typhoon… in the other, I had followed Vash to the ship… and got that new leg I was wearing…" She shuddered at the thought of that metal leg. She then grabbed Millie's hand.

"Oh my god," she whispered and dragged her partner to the rear.

Sara shook her head. "Two plants? How large was this section of ship?" she asked Lexington.

"Pretty big," he said. "And they were only a pair of B class plants. They put up quite a struggle to save their ship. They held it for over 150 years."

"What brought it down then?" she asked with a fear of his response. He shook his head.

"On this planet? Need you ask?" he said.

Meryl sat down on the edge of her bed. Millie looked confused at her.

"Meryl, what is it?" she asked.

Meryl gripped her arms as if holding herself would keep her from exploding. She looked up at her perplexed partner.

"Millie, you know our relationship with Vash, right?" she asked.

Millie scratched her head. "Well, it's been rather… umm… eventful," she said. Meryl dropped her head. That was putting it mildly.

"I… I was wrong," she stumbled over her words. She burned a hole through the floor with her eyes, feeling she could tell Millie this, but only if she wasn't looking at her.

"You were wrong Miss Meryl?" Good old Millie… always with the proper names when she was serious.

"I didn't follow Vash when he went to the flying city…" Meryl trembled. "Vash carried me there."

Millie gawked at her. "Oh wow, really?"

Meryl nodded. "I hate this memory thing… I know that the memory of you and me fighting off the typhoon together was what happened - My god, just having the thomases crash through our room was enough excitement – but this second memory…" She lowered her head and shivered.

"He cradled me. He told me that he knew of a man who could give me back my leg. He seemed less of a goof as well in that time line… He was grieving… He was grieving for me… He felt that he had been responsible for Descartes getting me with his boomerang. But I did that by myself when I mistakenly thought that spring-loaded freak was Vash."

Millie thought back. She remembered hanging by ropes from a rocky overhang. "I remember Mr. Vash cutting us down before that outlaw could do anything to us," Millie said.

"I didn't get that far in the other time line…" Meryl moaned. It flashed through her mind. She rode her thomas up to the ridge, got off, pulled a box of donuts out, and had started down to confront the monstrous man with the steel boomerang.

To say that the monstrous man was unimpressed was easy to see - he tossed his weapon at her, smashing her left leg as it slowly whipped her feet out from under her.

"Hey!" she remembered the tied up Vash yelling through her pain. "That's no way to treat a cute girl! Didn't your mother learn you right!?"

Descartes snorted as he snatched the slowly spinning boomerang from the air. "Shut up you! I don't give a pig's crap what you think! Besides, I didn't even use my overdrive! I'd-a sawed her in half if I had, and that would have been a waste!"

"He called you cute?" Millie caught. "Wow!"

"Millie… don't read anything into this…" Meryl gritted. She sat up and tried to collect her thoughts. "What did he do after that?" she pondered. "I remember being in extreme pain, so the memory is a bit scrambled." She shook her head. "I guess I must have passed out after that. The next thing I remembered was waking up in a hospital, and seeing Vash in a chair sleeping."

"Wow, that's way different than what I remember," Millie said.

Meryl glared at Millie. "Of course it is Millie – It's a different time line."

"Oh yea! Silly me!" Millie said while tapping her head with her knuckles. "So, what happened after you left the hospital?"

Meryl slung her head across her knees as she slid back in her bed a bit. "Well really, it was more like a bed and breakfast with a first aid kit than a hospital. The quack doctor there barely knew how to dispense aspirin! He had first tried to fix my leg, but then decided that amputation was the only cure."

Millie joined Meryl in clutching her legs as she sat down. "Oh Meryl – that's horrible! What did Mr. Vash do?"

Meryl thought and pondered. Visions of Vash helping her, being with her, COMFORTING HER… she remembered crying into his chest when the doctor said her leg would have to come off. She remembered him crying too.

"I will always be here for you, Miss Stryfe. After all, this is my fault, isn't it?"

Meryl's eyes dilated. Had he actually said that?

"Oh god Millie… I cursed at him… I swore at him… I beat him silly," Meryl cried as a phantom pain ran up her left leg. She looked at it as if to reassure herself that the limb was still there. "But in the end, that idiot broom-head stayed with me." She turned and fell back into her bed and stared at the ceiling. She compared histories and huffed, wiping her face of the tears. She lifted her left leg and dropped it on the mattress.

"I guess I really screwed things up for him then as well," she commented. "My hospitalization delayed him going to see Frank Marlon, so he wasn't there to save the town's bank money when it was robbed. Frank was killed by a drunk at the bar the next day."

"But Meryl, how did you follow Vash without a leg?"

Meryl groused. "That quack doctor fitted me with a peg leg, thought it hurt like hell. But most of the time… ummm… he carried me…"

Millie just stared at her partner. "He _carried _you? I would have thought he would have sent you home!"

Meryl gave a slight laugh. "Not to mention, I believed that he was Vash the Stampede a lot earlier than I did in this time line." She rolled over and peered out the portal at the still view outside.

"ACK!" she said.

Millie dropped her legs and nearly stood up. "Meryl? What is it?"

A memory had crashed through her mind. The vision stung her brain and caused her to twitch. But then it became warm and soothing, and the last thing she wanted it to be was soothing. Or did she?

Vash was carrying her across the desert east of Inepril City. Her leg wasn't improving, and without the peg in place, she tended to fall off her thomas – and with it IN place, the thomas would get a steady beating from the club. It was a no win situation.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked her.

She steamed. "You know as well as I do what my standing orders are, you dumb-ass!" she shouted at him. "I am to find you and run risk prevention! So since you claim to be Vash the Stampede, then I'm stuck with you until you either give yourself up…"

"Which we know will never happen," he cut in.

"…Or someone gets lucky and…" She trailed off, not really wanting to say what she meant. "Well… you know…"

He shrugged. "You never know. There could come a day…"

She pounded his chest. "Don't talk like that!" she scolded him. She watched the desert move slowly by as he walked.

"You know, you've never told me why you've never tried for the $$60,000,000,000," he stated.

She looked up at him. "I can't – I'm not allowed."

He looked confused. Almost like Millie would. "Huh?"

"BUNY is the underwriter of the bounty as well," she said. "If I were to bring you in, I wouldn't get $$60,000,000,000 – I'd get $$60."

"Ah, no incentive then," he said.

"You can say that again!" She snuggled in a bit. "But this isn't so bad."

"What?" Vash gawked. "Loosing your leg isn't bad?"

Meryl shook her head. "Well, I'm being cared for by a nice man – a bit goofy, that's for sure – which still leaves me wondering if you are truly Vash the Stampede you know – he's suppose to be the devil's helper, a reckless pervert, and a scourge to all. But if you are him then I've successfully managed to do what I was sent to do."

"Which is…"

She laughed. "I've minimized the damage you inflict! Since we've met, there hasn't been a single incident involving the Humanoid Typhoon. Amazing, isn't it?"

"Hey, great wonders come in small packages," he said with a smile.

Meryl blinked. "And what's that suppose to mean?" she asked.

"For the first time in a long while, I have something to worry about other than my past." He looked down at her and smiled, his yellow sun glasses shining in her face.

"Give me those!" she said taking the glasses off his face and putting them on hers. "I'm the one looking up in the suns all day!" She looked up at him. He was grinning a warm and caring smile.

"Oh my god," Meryl grimaced, "the next thing I know, we're locked together like leaches!" She grabbed her throat and fell over in the bed.

"I must say, you certainly had a saltier language then," Millie noted. "If my mother was here, she'd wash your mouth out with thomas soap!"

Meryl peeked over at Millie from her prone position with a blank face. "Millie, weren't you listening?"

She nodded. "Uh huh! You two were two were stuck together like leaches!" she smiled. "Umm… Meryl?"

"Yesss?" She waited for the next shoe to drop.

"What's a leach?"

---------------------------------

The Steamer pulled into New Oregon station late that afternoon. Millie and Meryl were surprised to find that there was a proper station platform waiting them, and that the exit was through the satellite system's offices – primarily the weatherman's room. When they exited the stone structure, they found an overcrowded city.

"It looks like most of the people of the flying city are still here," Meryl noted seeing the throngs. "I wonder why they're here and not back at the ship?"

"Because those who lived there are temporarily living here in New Oregon City," a small bald man said. "You must be Vash's friends. I got your message."

Meryl looked at the man. She remembered him from the last time they were in town. But this time was different - The image of him toiling over her false leg in her alternate life struck her – her covering her head while Vash comforted her over the clanging of steel and aluminum as he formed a proper limb for her. She attempted to excise it from her mind but the memory was just too fresh.

Sara shook the offered hand. "I understand you have what we're looking for?" she asked him.

"Indeed," he said. "And if it works as you said it would then it might help us as well. Come this way, please."

They walked around the back side of the mesa towards where the large section of spaceship had landed over a year prior. Six large metal arms now supported the ship in its perilous position, as if cradling an egg that was about to tip over. Its position was all that was needed to explain why the people that had lived on it were now in the city beyond.

"I was quite relieved to hear that Vash had indeed defeated his brother," the man stated. "But if what you say is true, then we might be in greater trouble than first imagined."

"Doctor, what is the condition of the sleepers?" Sara asked. The doctor shook his head.

"In the landing, we lost 20. We lost 2 others when we couldn't get the back-up Plants on line fast enough." Sara looked at the mass over their heads.

"Two Class B Plants held that up for over 150 years?" she said in awe. "Unbelievable!" She stepped around the lower section of the ship, examining the hull and structures.

"Huh," Meryl said while scratching her head. "What's with her?"

Lexington crossed his arms and waited for her. "Sara has with her a master manifest of the SEEDS Project. She knows who is where and what."

"You mean that little box she was playing with earlier?" Millie asked while downing a pudding cup she bought at a small grocery. Lexington nodded yes.

"I still don't understand where she got that list from," the doctor noted. "Where is she from?"

All three of her companions pointed up.

"Umm… actually there!" Millie said as she adjusted her aim towards the Fifth Moon. "Just north of the hole!" The doctor just stood there.

Sara found a plug-in station and inserted her scanner. "Yes!" she exclaimed and jumped a little as the readouts played. "This was one of the Magi ships!" She scanned further to see what was left.

Lexington looked up at the mass of metal balanced overhead. "Then this would have been much larger than this section. I wonder where the three Class A units went that would have been at the rear of the ship?"

Sara stood back. "This is the mid ship section," she explained while pointing at parts of the body of the hull. "The engineering section is missing, as is the forward section. This unit that it is resting on is the ship's main computer, and the majority of this section above us is storage for the Coldsleep tubes. There were two B class Plants near the computers, and two more to the rear, but they seem to be missing. From the angle of the break, and the lack of hull in some sections, I'd say that this ship was struck in two places by another of the fleet's ships. We'll see once the playback is finished downloading."

The doctor stood gawking as the information was being handed him by a total stranger. He looked up at the Fifth Moon that the others had pointed to earlier.

"This is amazing," he said under his breath. "And you say she's from the Fifth Moon?"

"Landed here last Sunday," Meryl said scratching the back of her head. "Man! Things sure have been happening since then!"

The doctor then noticed the patch on Sara's shoulder. "And she's SEEDS Security?"

"Yes sir," Lexington replied. "And she's part Plant, like Vash."

"Yes, yes, I can see that," he pondered. He then looked up at Lexington. "But you're a full Plant, aren't you?"

Lexington wasn't ready for that. He took a step back and pulled on his collar a bit nervously.

"Don't be shy son," the doctor smiled. "I've known many Plants in my life. I trust you aren't looking for a job, are you?"

Lexington looked at the ship and quickly summarized what he meant. "Thank you for the offer," he said, "but I have my own vessel when the time comes for me to recycle."

The doctor shrugged. "I had to ask. Well, anyway, you may have been too large for the containment vessel anyway."

Lexington looked at the man with confusion. "Size does not matter," he noted. The doctor looked at him with surprise.

"Really? I did not know that… interesting…"

Sara came back to the group with a quick step. "This ship has a full set of regen units!" She looked at the doctor with a pleading expression on her face of a young child which struck them as a bit funny. "May we borrow one please?"

The doctor scratched his head and looked at the ground. "You know, I have been the chief surgeon, science officer and leader of these people for almost 60 years. I still do not know everything there is about this ship. A regen unit?"

Sara nodded her head hopefully. "You have a full room of them next to Plant 2."

"Those small things?" he asked. "Even Vash didn't know what they were."

Lexington nodded. "Well, that would explain why the Plantoids in your Plants were so tired towards the end."

The doctor looked up at the large man. "How would you know that?"

Lexington sighed. "They told me. They're still telling me."

The doctor cocked his head in confusion. "Son, those Plants were killed last year."

"No, they were dispersed last year," Lexington corrected him. "They can still be saved."

Inside a dark room, the stray light coming in from the open door reflected off hundreds of glass bulbs, all roughly eight to nine feet tall.

"We all thought that this was where the Plants grew their offspring," the doctor surmised. "We never thought that this was where they restored themselves."

Lexington released a wheel-set and rolled the first unit to a C-shaped hoist. The unit caught a pair or rails and locked on. He pressed a control button, and the bulb rotated on its axis until the base was now suspended and the bulb hung down. He then gave the glass a bear-hug and twisted hard. He unscrewed it half way then pulled a support tray around to capture the bulb before it dropped. He released it the rest of the way and lowered it gently to the padded seat.

Sara entered the room with what looked like a beaker. "This was all I could find in the second Plant." She looked a bit uneasy at the pieces in the glass. Lexington took it from her and nodded.

"It's the right stuff," he noted. "It takes a while for Plants to decompose."

Meryl held her mouth. "Wonderful news!" she commented. "Now that you have that stuff, what do you plan on doing with it?"

Lexington slid the beaker over a center housing unit inside the base of the small Plant device. It locked in place. It looked as if the items in it instantly liquefied when he turned on a control system.

"Still active and accepting input," he said. "Ready a rod."

As he brought the bulb back over and connected it back to its base, Sara pulled a carbon rod out of a sleeve on the wall. Lexington gave the glass a final twist and hit a button marked 'SEAL' on the side of the base unit. It hissed as air was removed from the vessel. Then a yellow gas was pumped in. He took the rod presented to him by the officer and slid it down from the top of the C-stand.

The reaction was almost instantaneous. A head first blossomed from around the inner glass beaker - Then a set of arms, a torso and a small set of wings. Meryl and Millie stood in shock as the creature inside the vessel looked at her arms and clutched herself with them.

"Her structure looks good," Sara commented as she looked in on the reborn Plant. She placed her hand on the glass and smiled. The girl inside looked up at the officer and smiled as she placed her hand opposite hers.

"This is amazing," the doctor said nearly in disbelief. "She restored herself with just that little amount of material?"

Lexington checked over the reading he was getting. "Most of her regeneration will come from The Source." He tapped on the glass to get the girl's attention and pointed at the base. The Plant girl looked down at it and twisted a knob. He gave her a thumb's up and returned to his work.

"The Source?" Meryl asked. "What do you mean?"

"We are used as power conduits," Sara stated bluntly. "We quite literally tap into what we call The Source – the place where our ancestor came from – and bring that power here. So if we are dispersed while still in contact with The Source, part of us may remain there."

"So by using some of her original genetic material," Lexington added while doing final adjustments, "we are capable of regenerating her physical body here. What you see here though is only her basic form. It will take probably a month to regenerate her fully."

The doctor clasped his hands together. "I must send some people into Plant 1 to look around." He stopped at the door and looked back at the unit. "Would this have worked on Vash?"

Meryl held her breath as she looked at Sara. The officer did not turn.

"No," she said. "By the time you first met him, it would have been over the 75 year limit he had to first use a Plant recovery unit."

The doctor sighed. "Unfortunate… unfortunate indeed." He turned to leave the room again. "You may use as many of these units that you feel you need," he said as he left.

Before they headed back to the Steamer with their units, Lexington set up another system for some of the first Plant's remains that the doctor's group had found. Sara requested four working units. Lexington also added a pair that had smashed during the landing of the ship for spare parts. The entire assembly was then sent back to the Steamer and set them up in the engine room next to Dallas' plant.

Meryl and Millie had not been back in the engine room of the Steamer yet. All the pipes and wiring conduits made for a rakish and confusing ceiling. But the dominating object was in the rear of the room with the unique bulb of the modified Micro Plant that gave the Tunnel Steamer its power. The lower part of the bulb looked like a normal glass enclosure that a regular Plant would have. But since the back of the Steamer was known to taper down, the bulb's shape made it look as if it went through the roof, when in fact the top of the bulb was specially modified to form-fit the curve and angle of the engine room's ceiling. Lexington seemed proud of this fact, as he seemed to have found that this odd design would cause some interesting power output when used to their proper potential.

Millie just looked confused. Meryl just looked about in awe.

"Okay Dallas, I'm going to give you control of the C-stand," Lexington told the large glass bulb behind him as he connected some heavy cables to a set of jacks under the Micro Plant's controls. A large hand inside the Plant could be seen making an 'okay' sign.

"So just what are you doing here?" Meryl asked while watching all the fuss the officer and the Plant were making.

Sara tapped on the glass beaker on a work table beside her. "This is the remains found at the site we were at this morning," she noted. "I suspect that it is from the Plant that was destroyed near Twenty-Four Dai. We'll find out when we put it in the vessel and attempt to restore it."

Meryl looked in the beaker. "What, with that little piece?" she asked.

"The actual size matters little," Sara noted. "That the piece can become the rest of the Angel's form once connected to The Source does though."

"An angel?" Millie squealed. "My oh my! I can hardly wait!"

Meryl was about to tell her that it wasn't that kind of angel but she stopped. Even she didn't know just what it would be.

Lexington locked the beaker to the stand and covered it up with the bulb. "Okay, cross your fingers folks," he said as he exchanged the air for the yellow gas. "Hand me a rod please."

Meryl watched Sara pull the carbon shaft from its sleeve and give it to Lexington. She watched him get behind the unit and lift it to the top. But a movement to the left of her vision caught her eye.

Dallas was waving frantically in his vessel. The others had not seen it.

"Wait!" Meryl tried to say, but something stopped her. It was as if someone was holding a hand to her mouth.

"Quiet my dear. You will hold your place while I do my work!" a female voice tromped through her head. She felt as if she could not move. She could only watch as Lexington slid the rod into place and the form started to materialize.

Dallas shut down power to the unit. Lexington spun about to see why he had done so.

"Power is increasing nicely," he heard Sara say. He turned back to the vessel.

"Something's wrong," he said as he started emergency shutdown. But as he tried the power continued to grow. The Plantoid inside the bulb thumbed her nose at him! "Power should not be building – Dallas cut the flow!"

"That's impossible!" Sara said. "A regen unit can't generate power on its own!"

"Unless…" Lexington saw that Dallas was covering his face with his arms as if he expected an explosion. The girls weren't moving. Sara was still with him, but time and reality seemed strangely distorted.

"That's it! Dual power flow from The Source!" He punched the release valve and attempted to remove the rod from the unit.

"I don't think so, Delta 12!" a voice thundered in his head. Sara looked about to see if someone had come on board the Steamer. She looked back at the vessel and saw the girl inside waving a finger at her.

"Now - now officer," she broadcast. "You should know better than that!"

Sara stood up and stared down on the angel inside the bulb. "Who are you?" she asked flatly. "You obviously are not the Plant we thought you were going to be."

"Ah, yes… Sandusky was right, you do have a brain," the creature in the bulb snidely said. "You were expecting my sister, the poor dear. No, Sandusky did use all of her in his little toys that we'll be unleashing soon. What you had was one of my fingers, which I am currently regenerating at my regen center here in Olympia City. But since you were so nice to attempt to regenerate my sister, I must at least give you my thanks by taking your lives."

Sara pulled her gun. "You didn't answer my question," she scowled.

"Go ahead," the Plantoid said. "Shoot me, and the resulting explosion will kill everyone in here, including a good portion of the people outside this tunnel you are in!"

Sara smiled. "Who said anything about shooting you?"

She took the butt end of the gun and hammered down on the glass. The bulb cracked and hissed.

"Fool! If that gas reaches your human friends, they're dead!" the Plant yelled.

"No they won't, will they?" Sara said with a wry smile. She looked back as a cloud of black feathers dropped before Millie and Meryl. The tall man behind the wings glared angrily at the Plant in the regen unit.

"Damn it, just don't stand there!" the dark angel barked at Sara, "Get her before she gets a chance to fire!"

"Too late for that," the small humanoid in the cracking bulb said as she seemed to pull a pike from out of her skin. She held it out. Two spheres that were on the end started to spin and whirl about, making the room sway a bit. Lexington became frantic to remove the rod from the back of the unit when he saw what she was doing.

"My name is Horloge the Time-Keeper!" she yelled as Sara dropped in defense. The officer slammed her gun down on the glass again just as the orbs were about to fire. "Feel the force of time as it rips you asunder! – Huh?"

The silver gun smacked one of the orbs, shattering it. The second orb flew off and bounced once off the remaining piece of the bulb, then out onto the engine room's floor. Without the gas to sustain her, the second Horloge withered and fell limp.

But the shattered orb was releasing spikes of energy as it too fell to the ground. When it struck the surface, a blinding light erupted bathing the room until all was white.

When Lexington looked up, he was holding the rod from the regen unit, and the room was dark. Emergency lighting had snapped on. He looked around. Sara was gone, as was the Insurance Girls and the winged man who had appeared before them.

But the room was too dark. He turned to the large vessel behind him which should have been producing light.

Dallas was not in his vessel.

A reflection off the Micro Plant's glass caught his attention. There was something behind a cooling pump on the floor. Lexington examined it, and found the other orb. It was blinking as if keeping time.

"Terrific, he groused.

oOo

**Next Episode**

_**Cue Rem Saverem singing "I'm my Own Grandmaw" **_

SPIKE: Hi, Spike Spiegal guest hosting this promo for this episode of TRIGUN: Moon Child. In this episode, all hell breaks loose! Worlds are turned and fates are sealed...

JET: What are you talking about?

SPIKE: I'm talking about the obligatory time travel episode!

JET: Oh no, really?

FAYE: I'm outta here. I've had my fill of my own time traveling.

SPIKE: Oh come on, you want to stay - it has humor, adventure, excitement, and it even gets a bit tear jerky at points!

JET: What? 'You tryin' to get me to cry?

SPIKE: Real men do cry. Real men like Nicholas D. Wolfwood.

FAYE: Oh please...

SPIKE: Next episode of TRIGUN: MOON CHILD - Chapter Six - Distant Life. Read it with a friend.

JET: Have you a hanky?  
_  
__**VASH:**_**_WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY PROMO!?_**

All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow

Characters from the Anime/Manga COWBOY BEBOP ©2003 Sunrise/BanDai Visual

Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0311.15


	9. Distant Life

**Chapter Six**

TRIGUN:  
**MOON CHILD****  
****Distant Life**

**By R. A. Stott**

Sections of this story based on

"THE ANGEL AND THE WARRIOR"

By S. Nordwall

Sara looked at her hand. The silver gun she had been holding was no longer there. Neither was her uniform. As a matter of fact, she wasn't wearing anything, except a fine thin nightgown. And now that she thought about it that was a ceiling she was looking at. For that matter, how did she wind up in bed?

A rumble beside her caught her by surprise. She glanced over her shoulder. She then leapt from the bed startled at the sight of a large man there snoring away. She grasped the wall breathing hard. Where was she? Who was this? And why did everything look so strange? This room she was in was cluttered with stuff that was more modern looking than anything she had seen on Gunsmoke, yet still looked old as compared to the equipment back home on the Fifth Moon.

The sounds behind her were odd. One sounded like a horn in the distance. She saw a window next to her. She crept along the wall and looked out.

The window faced east. She could tell, as the first rays of the suns were coming up over… umm… suns?

There was only one sun. She could tell, since it was up, and the trace signs of the second sun should have been showing along the horizon. Where was it? And what town was this she was seeing? The buildings all around her were brick and steel, not the slapped together ones of New Oregon.

"…Pistons beat the Bulls one o'nine to ninety-two," a box on the table beside the bed suddenly started to squawk, making Sara jump again. "It's 6:05 in the morning – GEEEEEET UP DETROIT! It's a balmy 52º in the downtown, 48º in the 'burbs…" Sara managed to quiet the device after hitting as many of the little buttons on top of it as she could.

"Sara?"

She held her breath and looked over at the man in bed. He was looking at his hands with a confused expression on his face.

"Umm… yes?"

He continued to look at his hands as he rolled onto his back. "What the hell happened?"

"Depends," she said without moving from the now silent noisy device.

"On?" he asked.

"On just who the hell you are?" she replied.

Before he answered, there was a slight knock on the door. Sara stood up erect, not knowing if she should open it. There was another knock. The man in the bed looked at her, then the door, then back at her. She slowly walked around the head of the bed and approached the door, which knocked again. She gingerly opened the door.

Twins… two small children were looking up at her. One was looking a bit woozy, the other bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

"Mommy, Mary's sick!" the bright-eyed one said.

"Mommy, I don't feel good!" the other one said.

Sara stood in shock. She looked back at the man, then back at the girls. Then back at the man… the blond man. She was blond too… if these two were her children, why did they have brunette hair?

"You were right mommy!" Bright-eyes giggled. "The brown hair does cover the marker colors!" Well… one mystery solved… She looked at the man again.

"And?" she bluntly dropped on him.

"And what?" he asked.

"Who?" she continued.

"Ah," he said as it finally dawned on him. "Dallas."

Sara thought about that for a moment – ah, the Plant from the Micro-Plant onboard the Tunnel Steamer… Sara nodded. "Okay…" Second mystery solved. Now just who are these cherubs?

"Mommy! Patty poked me!" sick Mary complained. Okay, third mystery solved… Patty and Mary are their names… But who are they?

Mary then threw up. Damn!

----------------------------------------

Millie held him. She didn't know who he was, or where he came from, but when she felt the world drop away a moment before, he had suddenly appeared to grab her. Whatever fate had in mind is anyone's guess, as he fell with her too. When they landed he had blocked her view, and it was now dark.

"Ow… damn that smarts!"

She held her breath. It couldn't be him – he was dead!

"Where the hell are we?" he continued. "What's this?"

There was a flash of light in her face. She opened her eyes to a hand holding a match.

"What the hell are we doing in this closet?" he asked. Millie noticed that they were indeed surrounded by garments and jackets. The hand with the match was having a hard time not setting this stuff on fire. She blew it out.

"Hey! What did you do that for?" he barked.

"There's no need to burn the house down!" Millie barked back. She grabbed the hand. It felt real enough. But still…

She bumped up against something that felt ribbed. Light streamed into the closet from outside, as she had opened a valence. She pushed against it, and it popped open. The grill had been attached to a flimsy door! She fell back out of the closet, dragging the hand with her, along with half the closet's contents!

"Man!" he complained next to her on the floor. "You sure don't do things lightly, do you?"

She opened her eyes. She saw his face. She jumped off the floor and scrambled to stand up.

"Y-you!" she cried. "Mr. Preacher, it's YOU!"

"Yes, yes, it's me," he said half laughing. He didn't have long to laugh, as she had clanged his head with a convenient skillet.

"You left me with child!" she bellowed. "I'm going to have your baby!"

"Ow! Yes I know - I've been following along with the story! Damn that smarts!" he grumbled while rubbing the back of his head. "You'd think being an angel and all would prevent that!"

"And what makes you think you're an angel mister?" an angry Millie growled. "Where's your halo? Where's your wings?"

Wolfwood stopped seeing stars on that remark. He looked back. The two huge wings were gone.

"My father is gonna KILL me!" she wailed. "Having a child out of wedlock! Mommy is gonna SKIN me! Why did you have to die!? WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DIE!?"

She was flaying wildly with the pan. Wolfwood had to quickly grab her hand before she dealt him another blow. "Millie, MILLIE!" he yelled. "Honey, settle! I'm not dead!"

"Huh? What do you mean?" she asked from under a torrent of tears.

"You said it yourself Millie," he said gesturing to his back. "My wings are gone!"

"But… But I saw you…" she cried. "I saw Mr. Vash bury you."

Wolfwood stood upright. "Vash buried me?" he whispered to himself. "Damn… Brush-brain did that for me?" The thought of Vash doing that made him not notice at first that Millie had collapsed sobbing against his chest.

"Hey… Heeey," he cooed to her. He lifted her chin with his hand and looked at her big wet blue eyes. "Hey, I'm here now. I have no idea what's going on, but I'm here… wherever the hell 'here' is."

Millie fell back into his chest and squeezed him hard. He felt some of his vertebrae pop. Back from the dead, and into the pain.

Something slammed. It sounded like wood against wood. Neither of them were used to that, since wood was so rare on Gunsmoke. But then again…

Wolfwood looked at the building around them. The whole thing was made of wood. Floors, walls, ceiling - the whole thing was a dark brown wood planking. Only a person with a million double dollars could afford a building like this – though for something made of this much lumber, it did seem a bit shabby.

He peeled away from Millie to investigate this place they found themselves in. Other than the closet, there didn't seem to be much more to this building other than another room which was full of provisions. A single bed rested against one wall, a stove and table on the other. There were a few rickety chairs about, and a large wash pan against the wall under a window. He opened the door next to the window and looked out. He was greeted by a blast of wind.

"Nicholas, where are we?" Millie asked. It had been the first time he had ever heard her use his first name. She clung to his arm trembling.

He looked around. There was grass everywhere. Iles and iles of grass that rolled and moved to this wind that was blasting the small house they were in. The building seemed on the top of a small hill, if this was a hill – it seemed more like a small lump in the middle of a sea of grass.

Down at the bottom of the rise was a heard of something large. It had a huge head, tapered body, and strangely short legs. And they were black - Massively black creatures. They certainly were not thomases.

He looked about the cabin again. A newspaper sat folded up on one of the chairs. He quickly opened it and checked to see what it could tell him.

"ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH" it read across its banner. Wolfwood had never heard of St. Louis. He looked about for a date.

"Oh damn," he grumbled.

"What is it?" Millie asked with some trepidation after hearing the tone of his voice.

Wolfwood spread the paper out on the table. "This thing says that it's from August 8th, 1893." He ran outside into the cold wind and looked into the blue sky. A single sun greeted him.

"Damn! We're on Earth!"

----------------------------------------

"STOP!"

Meryl ran like her life was on fire. She had suddenly found herself on this military base without a clue to how she got there. And it didn't help any that one of her Derringers had dropped out of her cloak just as she had figured that the fall she had taken was over.

The guns and uniforms that the men had who were chasing her seemed odd. She had never seen such dress, or such weapons. But they sure could let fly a volley of lead! She dashed into a small alley then slid under a vehicle that was parked on the side. Thank god for being petit!

She got a chance to catch her breath. She noticed some words stenciled to the side of the vehicle she had moved behind - "Thornton Air Force Base – MAX WGT – 20 TONS" – Odd.

"Let's check back here," she heard one of the men yell. She looked about quickly for an escape route. A door was behind her. She pushed it, and found it open. She entered and pushed it shut until it clicked – a fortunate break! One of the men had come up to it and yanked on it soon after she had closed it and found it locked. She blew out a large sigh.

"What is this place?" she asked herself. "It's obviously a military base of some sort, but where? And how did I get here?"

She then stopped and in a panic looked around. "Millie! Where is Millie?"

"In this time line, your friend Millie died nearly eighty years ago," a soft voice told her. "Her grandchildren live to this day here in the west, my dear."

Meryl slammed against a wall. "No! Eighty years? Where am I? How did I get here?"

The voice was calm and soothing. "Do not worry. You have traveled over 300 of your years to the past, and traveled along a route of your ancestors. I sense that you have family living in the Los Angeles area of California at this time."

Meryl looked about the darken area. "My… my family did come from Los Angeles… is this Earth?"

The voice chuckled. "Indeed. Please, come to me. Just follow the hallway down to the left. You can't miss me. There's someone here I think you should meet."

----------------------------------------

D'two sat in his chair and pondered the sphere that surrounded him.

"Horloge, what news have you?" he keyed up in his mind.

"Well, umm, master," came a disturbing response. "There seems to have been a mix-up…"

D'two only moved his chin to the top of his hands. "Explain," he thundered.

"It really wasn't her fault master," Sandusky was heard to say. "The plan was moving along fine until…"

"Did I ask you?" D'two grumbled. "Silence, Forge…" The sounds of Sandusky gurgling could be heard through his mind. "Now my dear, I know how much Sandusky means to you… explain to me your failure…"

"It wasn't failure, my lord, it was interference!" she said with a touch of dread in her voice. "The plan was moving along fine, but we never expected another Plant to intervene."

"Another Plant?" D'two asked. "Just who was foolish enough to have done that?"

"I've never seen him before master," she said. "He wore all black, had black wings… and for that matter, had black hair…"

"Plants all have blond hair," D'two stated. "Why are you lying to me Horloge?"

"She is not lying," another voice interrupted.

"Goethe, what do you want?" D'two mumbled, upset a bit that this human had stopped his little sadistic fun before he could shoot.

"The black Plant is true," he said. "The Chairman of the Plants created him from the soul of a human who had died recently. His name is Wolfwood."

D'two sat back. "Wolfwood, ea? He was one of Legato's Gun-Ho Guns, was he not?"

"Y-yes sir," Goethe replied.

D'two looked up at the regen unit over the sphere. The arm inside the unit twitched.

"Should I release you?" he queried the arm. "Or should I save you for the finale?"

The arm swayed and twitched. He sighed.

"Horloge!" he shouted out loud in both mind and mouth.

"Y-yes sir?" she whimpered."

"What is the final result of this interference?" he asked.

"Well master, umm… instead of being ripped apart by my timewinds, when the officer shattered one of my pike's orbs, they were thrown back through time and space following their ancestral time lines… They're all back on Earth."

He pondered this. "So, I did feel my niece back then," he murmured. "Time-witch, bring them back. Sending them to Earth could jeopardize this future."

"Umm, pardon me for asking master," the weak voice of Sandusky asked, "but if they've already done the corruption of time, how would we know?"

D'two rested his head on his right hand and thought. "I don't know – I don't care. Get them back."

There was a brief shuffling in his mind's gate of the lackeys scurrying to do as ordered. He flicked his hand in disgust as he slammed his mind shut to them.

"I must pluck them apart for this," he thought. "First their fingers, then their toes… Ears would be next… yes ears… Maybe followed up with a dicing of their noses…" He could be heard whispering "She loves me, she locks me up," over and over for the rest of the afternoon.

----------------------------------------

"Who are these two?" Dallas asked. "We were never married…"

Sara sat and pondered her cup of coffee. The girls were in the living room watching some large yellow bird-like thing strut across a television with a letter B in his hands. Mary seemed better after throwing up earlier. Patty was busy jumping up and down on the sofa. She looked over at Dallas. He surely was a big one – The broad shouldered and narrow hips type. Hopefully, there was something between his ears.

"I think we replaced someone," Sara noted quietly in his mind. "There is too much here for us to have just dropped in and had two children. Let alone, if they were mine, they'd be at each other with their powers, now wouldn't they?"

"True," Dallas thought. "If they knew they had them."

Sara looked at Dallas with an angled head.

"Oh yea, they would, wouldn't they" he noted to himself. "So, how did we get here?"

Sara sighed and sipped her coffee. "I've seen something like this done by my mother once." Then it struck her. "Mother…"

"Huh?" Dallas asked. "What about your mother?"

Sara looked around the room with her eyes as slits. She was staring at the walls as if she could see through them. "Depending on just when this is, my mother could be walking the streets right now. I can't tell."

"You will find me down by the river, dear," a voice called to her. It was faint, as if modulated, but recognizably her mother's. Sara held onto the table and took a deep breath.

"There is a guided tour scheduled for this morning around 11," the voice said. "Come and see me."

On the television, the yellow bird-like thing was now talking about power, and to how where he lives gets it. The Plant he was in front of blinked and had a happy face appear on it.

"Come on girls! Time to get dressed," Sara said as she stood up. "We're going on a trip!"

The twins jumped up and cheered as if extremely pixilated. Sara wondered why they seemed so rambunctious all of a sudden.

She looked down at the table. The coffee!

_"You're not ready for this stuff yet,"_ she remembered Lexington say about coffee. _"This stuff has caffeine in it. The last thing you want to see is a Plant with caffeine in it!"_

Oh boy…

----------------------------------------

"Damn, where the hell are we?" Wolfwood pondered. He had taken a quick tour around the front of the cabin they had found themselves in. The cold breeze was making the smoke of his cigarette whip around the building. From what he could tell along the front, this was a homestead still in the planning stages. He had found a stack of wood that had obviously been there for a while and plans for a ramshackle barn in the house, and few other things. He found a letter-ad from a C. C. Carpenter in a drawer of a dresser that was in the pantry proclaiming the rights to settlement in the Oklahoma Territory. It included a paper that read "DEED" and a few scribblings about land and area it covered. Also in the drawers were Sears Roebuck's and Montgomery Ward's Catalogs and a stash of United States coins and paper money.

It was as if someone had started the work, and they had been dropped in unexpectedly to finish it.

"Not to worry," Millie sprightly said to the confused preacher. "This is almost like my old home. We'll get this place up and running in no time!"

"Honey, what are you talking about?" Wolfwood asked. "We have no clue how we got here, or what we should do about getting back to where we came from! Hell, I'm pretty sure we CAN'T get back!"

"Well then, we'll just have to do the best we can in the here and now, now shan't we?" she replied with a smile. He sat back with a bewildered look on his face and shook his head. He looked at the ceiling and began to laugh.

"Lord," he said aloud, "this is supposed to be a sign, right? If it is, it sure is funny!"

Millie looked at him with a perplexed expression. "What do you mean?" she asked.

He dropped his head and held it with his right hand. "I died before him. Now I find myself alive again with one of his angels out in the wilderness! The joke is on me, I'm sure of it. Crap, I'm either jinxed, or I have the damnedest luck!"

Millie stood back, not knowing if this was either good or bad. She then felt a hand take her left hand. She found Wolfwood on his knee looking up at her.

"If I am to be damned to this barren wasteland, there is no one I would rather be banished with than you." He smiled at her as she looked at him with a shocked expression. Her face turned flush red.

"You know, I have always told myself that you could do things I never could do with my life. I now have a second chance. Honey, let me make things right for you…"

"N-Nicholas… are you… are you…" she could only muster.

He nodded yes. She collapsed over him crying. He held her and stroked her head.

"I know I won't be the best husband you could have chosen," he whispered, "but I will always be here for you."

"You'll be fine," she cried over his shoulder while holding him. "You'll be the best husband I could ever want!"

They stayed locked together for hours. Darkness was beginning to fall when they finally separated.

"We'd best find just what we have here," she said while wiping her eyes. "We need a proper inventory!"

Wolfwood laughed. "You're the boss, Millie-Angel. First, we need a lamp."

Millie snatched a lantern from the corner. "Got one!" she said with a smile.

Wolfwood sat in the chair and patted himself. "Ah, here we go." He pulled out a pack of matches. "At least these came with me!" he said with a wink.

Millie grimaced. "Those cigarettes didn't come with you too, did they?"

He patted himself down again and produced the pack. Millie looked at him a bit hurt that he had found them then looked down at her belly, then back at him.

He looked at the cigarettes and looked at her. Her voice rang in his head saying _"Smoking is bad for the baby dear!"_ He sighed and crushed the pack.

"This IS going to be hell," he groused. He then lit the lantern. As he returned the flue over the burning wick, he found Millie before him. She kissed him.

"Thank you," she said as she tossed the squished box aside.

"You may be an angel," he said, "but you know how to be the devil too, now don't you?"

She giggled. Damn that was infectious!

A thorough inspection of the pantry closet found plenty of dry stock and grains for survival, bottles of oil for the lamps, and a small stack of wood for the stove. A quick look outside found a rain barrel with good water in it, and a set of doors leading down into a cool storage area. A chicken coop was also to the rear of the building, as was a small fenced in area with a strange pair of animals.

"Horses!" Millie cried. "My god, they're horses!"

Wolfwood looked at them with confusion. "What are we suppose to do with these? Eat them?"

"No silly," Millie laughed. "We ride them!"

Wolfwood looked at the beast oddly. "But… but they have four legs!"

Millie continued to laugh as she went to a lean-to shed that was attached to the end of the chicken coop and opened it. A pair of saddles was in it. Next to the fence opposite the house as a wagon of sorts which could be drawn by these beasts, much like the thomas-carts on Gunsmoke he figured.

"I believe they called that a duckboard, or something," Millie commented. She had gathered some eggs from the chickens and was looking for something to hold the water. Wolfwood finally took his eyes off the strange animals in the corral to assist her.

"We need to ride those?" He followed her around to the front of the cabin and found her staring out over the fields, the rays of the setting sun bathing her face in a reddish glow.

"This is just like home," she said again. "We'll have no problems surviving here dear. And look - if you look over where the sun is going down, you can see trees! So many trees!"

Wolfwood sighed. "Is this paradise?" he thought to himself. "If it is, then I don't want to leave."

He placed his arm over her shoulder and held her tight against his chest. He felt her sigh and place her head on his shoulder.

"This will be perfect," she said.

"Yes it will be," he replied.

The next morning, they searched the house again. The closet was full of vintage clothing, which surprisingly did fit them. If they were going to be on the US frontier, they'd best look the part. Wolfwood sorted through the money they had found and figured out what it was worth. Trying to remember that it wasn't DOUBLE dollars anymore took some getting used to. He made sure that they kept the old Federal Double money out of the mix.

Another thing they had not expected greeted them when they looked outside that morning – rain. Water falling from the skies wasn't something they dealt with often on Gunsmoke. The little stove in the cabin certainly was a blessing that morning.

Wolfwood was planning their next move as Millie came in the door carrying a basket full of eggs.

"Honey, what were you doing out in all that – that – whatever it's doing out there?" he asked looking at the nearly drowned woman.

Millie smiled and found a rag to dry herself with. "The chickens needed food, silly. When running a farm, there are always chores – chores – chores!"

He looked at the basket. There were enough eggs to feed a small army there!

"What are we going to do with all those eggs?" he asked.

"Sell them, silly! That's how a farm survives," she said placing them on the table. "I must say, it looked like there was some time since someone checked on those poor birds. There were eggs everywhere!"

Wolfwood sat back a bit. "Are you sure they're all good?" he asked, not wanting to get struck by the evil smell of a rotten egg.

Millie laughed. "I know how to coddle eggs, dear! I tossed all the nasty ones out already."

He sat back down and just stared at her. "You are amazing," he said. "We would be helpless without your knowledge. Vash was right about you."

Millie looked out from under the towel. "Mr. Vash?"

Wolfwood nodded. "He once told me that you were incredibly smart and perceptive. He was right."

She blushed and turned towards the pantry.

"Oh, by the way, I found this at the bottom of the dresser in the pantry this morning," she said turning back to him. She showed him her hand and a gold ring on it.

"That's a wedding ring," he said in wonder.

"Uh huh!" she said cheerily. "It had a note tied to it that said 'Put this on' – so I did!"

"It said what?"

Millie looked at Wolfwood with a touch of worry. His tone had changed from loving to nearly angry and it had shocked her. He noticed the look he was getting and settled.

"I'm sorry, honey," he apologized. "Where's this note?"

She pulled out the tag from the drawer and handed it to him.

"MILLIE - PUT THIS ON" it read. At the bottom was an S.

"I thought so," he said.

Millie looked at him with her sweet confused expression he was starting to get used to. "What's that?"

"We're being helped somehow," he said, waving the tag. "Who do we know with an S in their name?"

Millie pondered. "Only Officer Sara Montgomery that I know of," she said.

"Does she know of time travel?" he asked as he continued to examine the tag.

"I don't know," she said. "She did open that hole in space back at Twenty-Forth Dai…"

Wolfwood turned towards Millie pointing at her. "You're right, and some of her crew managed to enter the past that way."

"Poor Mr. Hoboken got stuck there. I wonder if he knew my 'grandfather' Hoboken?"

Wolfwood shook his head. "Honey, that was the same man," he explained.

Millie squirreled up her face. "He was? He certainly aged well, didn't he?"

Wolfwood stared for a moment. "Right… But the matter of the fact is he couldn't get back. I wonder if we're in the same boat?"

Millie looked back towards the pantry. "Oh… there was another thing in there with your name on it," she quietly said.

Wolfwood snapped a look at her. "There is?"

"Uh huh… I found it behind the door. We missed it last night."

Wolfwood looked at her then the door. He could tell she didn't really want him to see just by the expression on her face. He stepped into the pantry and closed the door behind himself. There behind where the opened door had hidden it was a flush cabinet with a wire-mesh door. Inside were three sets of guns and ammunition. One was a shot-gun, the second was a rifle, and the third was a leather belt that held a Colt Revolver pistol. A note tied to it said "WOLFWOOD – KEEP HER SAFE – S."

He looked at the weapons. 'Keep her safe?' How could he if he couldn't hold a gun without it slipping through his fingers? He opened the cabinet and shakily reached in.

The metal of the Colt was cold to the touch. It slipped out of its holster into his hand as if it had been fitted just for him. He spun it about with his finger and held it out. A droplet of sweat rolled down his face as he held the gun upright and aimed at the end of the pantry.

"Damn…" he whispered. "Bless me father… for I have sinned…"

----------------------------------------

Meryl found herself being guided to a set of stairs that lead down. She could see a glow from the bottom of the steps. It was familiar - There was a Plant down there.

"I suggest you put the gun away," the voice in her head said. "The people here are not to be afraid of."

She stopped on the landing. "Where exactly is here?" she demanded.

The voice chuckled in her head again – boy that was annoying! "You are in Thornton Air Force Base just east of San Francisco, California. You arrived via a trans-dimensional warp some 357 of your years to the past to just inside our gate. You gave the guards a great deal of surprise." The voice again chuckled.

"I guess I didn't help much by dropping that gun," Meryl said as she resumed the walk down the last set of stairs. "Won't they be looking for me in here?"

"No," the voice said. "I have given them the thought that you are heading for the front gate again. But I always shield those in here with me anyway, as my friends are my greatest joy. I do not wish that they be harmed."

"Nova," another woman's voice asked. "Who are you talking to?"

"A visitor that you two should meet," the first voice said in Meryl's mind. The other voice had been spoken. Meryl hugged the wall.

"Don't be afraid, Miss Stryfe," the first voice said. "You are welcomed here just as these two are."

Meryl swallowed and drew a deep breath. She first peeked around the corner of the wall and quickly drew back. Her glance had shown her two humans under a large dome… err… wait a minute…

She stepped out again. The humans weren't what she saw now. What she saw was a massive Plant – the largest one she had ever seen. If what Lexington had described as an 'A' Plant was big enough to power a city, this one could power a full province!

"Alex, please put your gun away. She is a friend."

Meryl shook her head. The Plant had just spoken to her – to them. She looked down to see the man next to the woman putting a gun back in his holster. His hair… He looked like Vash! And the woman…

"Millie?" she asked. "Millie, is that you?"

The girl stepped out from behind the man. Her hair was a deep brown, almost black, and her eyes were brown, not the blue Millie's were. But from a distance, the profile of her face… she almost looked like her lost partner.

"Who are you," the man asked. His voice wasn't anything like Vash's. She snapped to, shivering in fear.

"M-my name… my name is Meryl Stryfe," she started to spout in the company line, "of the Bernard… Bernardelli Insurance So… Society…"

"Be careful child," the Plant said. "Do not tell them of the future, least you spoil your own history."

"But… didn't they just hear that?" Meryl asked.

"No, I froze them in time momentarily. I will release them in just a second. Do not be afraid of them, especially the girl. She is who I wanted you to meet. But be mindful of your tongue, dear."

"ANSWER ME!!" the man barked.

"Alex, please. You're frightening the child," the Plant scolded him. "She means you two no harm. Besides, she and Rem have a mutual friend."

Meryl's eye locked on the girl. "Rem!? REM!? YOU'RE REM?"

The girl laughed. "Why yes… yes I am. Do we know each other?"

Her voice! Meryl fell to her knees. All this was getting too much for her. She fell back cold.

"Meryl? Miss Meryl? Wake up Miss Meryl!"

"Millie… Millie I just had the weirdest dream…"

"You're still in it I think," the voice said to her. She snapped her eyes open.

Rem was looking down at her. She wasn't dreaming this.

"What… what happened?" she asked the figment from Vash's past.

"You simply collapsed," she said. Her voice, though a little lower, she still sounded like Millie.

"Oooh, my head," Meryl complained. She then found a glass of water and a pair of pills being handed to her by the man.

"Sorry about all that," he said. "Nova told us why you were here."

"She did?" Meryl asked. "How much?"

"Enough," the Plant said. "I told them that you were from the future, and that a Plant accident sent you and some of your friends to the past, and that you are looking for them."

Meryl gawked at the bulb over her head. Why not just tell them that they're doomed to die?

"Time travel sounds so exciting!" Rem exclaimed – now she really did sound like Millie – "Do you do it often"?

Meryl took the water and pills and downed them – then hoped that they were pain relievers and not something else. "Time travel isn't supposed to happen at all… it just did!"

Nova coughed, getting their attention. "Because we live out of time, as you put it, we can sometimes play with it a bit. The explosion she was caught in must have caused a rift in time thus placing her here with us."

"So her friends might not be here with us at this time?" Alex asked.

Nova glowed a bit. "I sense that one went to Detroit, nearly five years ago."

Rem looked up at Nova. "Five years ago – but wasn't the Detroit Plant Disaster five years ago?"

Nova flared again. "Yes, but I feel she arrived after the explosion of Plant 2. I will have to contact Cindy to know more."

Alex laughed. "And I thought we were the only ones to name our Plant."

"And what about Millie and Lexington?" Meryl asked hoping.

"The one you called Lexington did not go. He remains in the future," Nova stated. "But as for Millie, her time-line took her further back, as I told you."

"Oh man, how far back?" Alex asked.

"Much further back," the Plant said. "Rem, show Meryl the good luck charm you carry."

Rem looked up at Nova startled. "My… coin?" she asked a bit perplexed. She dug into her pocket and pulled out a large silver dollar sized coin and showed it to her.

"FEDERAL RESERVE COIN – 1 DOUBLE DOLLAR" it read on the front. On the back was the letters 'S R B'.

"She showed it to me once," Alex said. "I never could figure it out… S R B stands for Solid Rocket Boosters to me…"

Meryl pulled a coin from her pocket and showed it to them. It was brighter and cleaner, but it exactly matched the one in Rem's hand.

"SEEDS Reserve Bank," Meryl said, then capped her mouth, knowing that she should not have blurted that out. "How… how did you get that?"

Rem held it to her chest. "It was handed down to me. You see, my great – great – great – umm… great grandmother was a settler in Oklahoma."

Meryl turned white. "Oh my god… Millie's child! She was pregnant!"

Rem nodded. "According to my family's history, she was pregnant when she arrived in Oklahoma with her husband."

Meryl sat back. "Husband? What husband?" It was then that the image of the Steamer's engine room flashed through her mind. Just before the explosion, there was a figure that dropped in front of her shielding her and Millie - A figure in black - A familiar figure.

"Wolfwood!" she exclaimed.

Rem looked puzzled. "No, Saverem. Their names were Saverem, just like mine."

Meryl now had the puzzled look. "Nova, is it the same person?"

Nova glowed again as she felt the course of history flow through her. "Yes," she said. "For some reason, they changed their names from Wolfwood to Saverem."

Meryl looked down and felt a smile cross her face. "Then she had a boy," she pondered aloud.

"No, she had a girl first," Rem said with a giggle. "Then a boy, and another boy… I think they had something like 12 children."

Meryl's chin dropped. "But Wolfwood…" She noticed that Rem and Alex were not moving again. "What?" she asked Nova.

"I know what you were about to say… Wolfwood became human via the transference. These are things they can not know."

"But Wolfwood was dead anyway. How did he suddenly appear? And were those wings I saw?"

Nova sighed. "The reasons escape me at the moment, but I'm sure that when you get back, you will be able to find out."

"Get back?" Meryl asked. "How am I supposed to get back?"

"I can see it as we speak," Nova said. "Your time-line is stretched like a cord. It will be wound back soon. The lines of the other though are broken. Their return to the future is still possible, but only with help."

"She lived until 1965," Rem continued. "Reverend Nicholas lived until 1966."

"Reverend Nicholas?" Meryl laughed. "Well, he was a man of the cloth."

Rem smiled. "He certainly was. He formed a church and an orphanage, and helped set up the Fort Supply Mental Hospital. He was their chaplain until his death."

Meryl looked at the coin in Rem's hand. She may have even given that coin to Millie. She smiled. At least she had a long and happy life.

"The hour is late," Nova said to the pair Meryl was with. "Rem should be getting home."

Alex nodded and helped his lady up. And as a gentleman should, he assisted getting Meryl to her feet as well.

"SEEDS Reserve Bank, ea?" he said. Meryl coughed and looked down.

"Well, at least we know that it succeeded," he added.

"Succeeded, right," Meryl sheepishly countered.

Rem took her hand. "It was a pleasure," she politely told her. "I love that outfit. I hope I get to wear one once we land."

Meryl swallowed. "Land? SEEDS? You two are going on SEEDS?"

Alex pulled out a set of forms he had in his hip pocket. "We just filled them out tonight. 'Gonna send them in tomorrow!"

"We're THINKING about going," Rem intervened. "I still want to know more about it first." She gave him a quick kiss seeing that he looked as if a balloon had just burst.

He stuck the forms back in his pocket and looked at Meryl. "Umm… how are we going to get you out of here?" he asked.

"I will take care of that, Alex," Nova said. "I have more to talk to Meryl about."

Meryl thought this Air Force Officer would have balked at that, but he simply said "Okay," and took Rem by the hand. Meryl watched them walk up the steps out of the room.

"I can see the headlines now," Meryl grumbled to herself. "HISTORY BLOWN TO BITS BY UPSTART INSURANCE GIRL! SEE PAGE 5!"

Nova laughed overhead. "Do not worry, they will not remember. I have selectively removed your encounter with them from their minds."

"You can do that?" Meryl asked.

"Yes, some Plants have powers that others do not," Nova rumbled. "I can alter thoughts and adjust time slightly. I can read time as well, but most Plants can do that. I have also protected those two as they have visited me, giving the monitors false images and such. But I'm afraid that this will be the last time they come to see me though."

Meryl looked back at the steps. "Why is that?" she asked.

"The war starts tomorrow. And soon Alex Thatcher will be dead."

Meryl stood back. "And you didn't warn them?" she shouted.

"History is a double-edged sword, Miss Stryfe. If I warned him, history would change. He would be court-marshaled for disobeying orders. Another man would die in his place. He would not go on SEEDS as they would not accept him, so neither did Rem. The other man who died in Alex Thatcher's place would be the son of a chief pilot of the Alpha ship to SEEDS. In his grief, he also remains on Earth. His replacement is inept, and causes a catastrophic failure of the main ship's drives. All were lost on Alpha. The fall-back ship, Beta, is not equipped to guide or to land the ships properly as it is fully automated. Over 75 of the SEEDS ships are destroyed in a failed landing on the forth moon instead of the planet. Those who do land find no atmosphere and no way off the moon without fuel. SEEDS fails. And you do not get born. Should I have warned him then?"

Meryl nervously laughed. "You're joking, right? You just made that up…"

"No child," Nova said. "This conclusion was given to me by an outside source. It is fact."

"What outside source?" Meryl barked. "As an insurance representative, I want to see this proof!"

"I am sorry," Nova said quietly. "All I can say is that observers have confirmed this. Alex must die so that Rem goes on SEEDS and saves the majority of the flight. It is a pity that only one man knows that."

Meryl sighed. "And that the great – great – great… umm… great grandchild of my friend… saved us all and gave me life…" Meryl clutched herself and broke down crying.

----------------------------------------

Lexington looked over the parts and pieces. The Plant was still intact - it just needed a core unit.

"Exactly," rang through his head.

"You again?" he spat. "What did you do with my friends?"

"Well, to tell you the truth," the voice said, "what happened was a mistake."

"A MISTAKE!?" he blew threw his mind at the voice. "YOU TRIED TO KILL US!"

"All things in love and war, sweetheart!" the voice snidely answered back. "But honestly, we need to get them back."

"Get them back?" he questioned. "What do you mean?"

The voice sighed. "They fell into their families' past. And back there they could do more damage than being here now. My boss wants them brought back."

Lexington crossed his arms. "And what makes you think I'm willing to help you Horloge?"

"Look, I'm exhausted, my boss wants to flay me, and you're being difficult! I want them back, you want them back, and even when they GET back, I won't have enough energy to do anything to them! But I DO need your help!"

Lexington looked about at the mess in his engine room, and the blinking orb on the work station.

"Okay, what do you need?" he asked.

----------------------------------------

The caffeine took some time to wear off. To Sara, the girls were jumping about like little juiced up devils, while the rest of the world moved in a slowed down snails pace as it extruded itself from the tunnel vision she was having. Things were pretty much back together by the time she had made it to the Waterfront Power Station. Looking around, she could see miles and miles of building and construction. The recovery from the great explosion was still going on.

"She's coming," her mother's voice momentarily shot through her head. It was as if she had been excitedly talking with someone else.

"The Plant tours will begin in 5 minutes," a speaker squawked. "Come see the Plant that saved the city! Come see Cindy!"

"This is degrading!" Dallas grumbled. Sara looked up at him. He was a tall one too.

"She was responsible for keeping Detroit functioning after the explosion," she explained. "The city was just thankful, that's all. Besides, think what would have happened if her brother had continued his wrath?" She noticed a few folks looking back at them.

"I think it would be best to keep this between ourselves," she beamed into his mind. "Most people of this time don't know that there's something alive inside the Plants."

"This is still degrading!" Dallas now grumbled in her mind. "Look, they even painted a smiley face on the containment vessel!"

Sara sighed. It was true that the PR boys had gone overboard with the 'Plants are our friends' theme, but after what her uncle had done, it wasn't a surprise…

She felt a cold rush pass over her – as if a stick had just been dragged across her back. The feeling came from the south of her where a sphere was sitting.

"By The Source, he's still here!" she whispered in her mind.

"He? Who he?" Dallas asked looking around confused.

"That sphere over there," Sara said pointing with her mind. "That's Delta 2."

"Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy," a voice rattled through their heads, making both of them stand still like statues. "Who do I see with my one good eye?"

"Excuse me… EXCUSE ME!"

Sara blinked and looked next to her. A man in a ConEd uniform was tapping her on the shoulder. "Excuse me, but you two look like you're having a little difficulty dealing with the Plant, am I correct?" he said to them.

"Huh?" she said. "Umm, no…"

"It happens… the static electricity and all… Here, put these on." He draped a pendant over their heads. "There. These will block any of that nasty feedback." He nodded to them.

"Enjoy the tour," he said as he walked away. "Cindy is waiting just for you," he added.

"I know that voice from somewhere," Sara said.

"Excuse me Sara," Dallas asked, "but did he just talk to us in our minds?"

Sara looked back at Dallas then looked about for the ConEd man. He was nowhere to be seen.

"And who was that bone-chilling voice?" Dallas added. "I can't hear that one anymore."

Sara looked over at the containment sphere. He was silent now. She looked at the pendant and wondered.

"Ooh, mommy!" Patty exclaimed. "Where did you and daddy get those?"

Sara looked down on her 'daughter' for the day. "From that man who was just here," Sara told her.

The twins looked about. "What man mommy?" Mary asked.

Before Sara could explain, the line started to move into the grounds of the Plant. Sara kept examining the disk-like medallion. It was blank on one side, but said "GENUINE DOORKNOB" on the back, whatever that meant. But the fact of the matter was her uncle could not touch her now. It didn't seem to stop her contact with Dallas, and her mother was still there, if just a bit muted.

"It's all in the frequency," she heard someone say. She saw no one, but it sounded like the man who gave this to her in the first place.

The tour was long and boring. A ConEd PR type expounded on the virtues of clean living clean power and clean air when working with the new Plant technology. If it was suppose to ease the fears that this plant overhead wasn't going to explode at any moment, only the children would have been settled, mostly because they were bored.

An hour into running a maze through the underbelly of the Power Center, the tour group finally got to the plaza above ground where the main Plant was. The back end was shielded from the elements with a conical structure, while the bulb end stuck out of it like a head with a pointed hat on. The smiley face didn't help it any.

"There she is!" rang through her head, and a burst of energy spread out from the Plant. People all around froze in their tracks except Sara and Dallas. Even the girls were still. Sara smiled – proof enough that they were not hers.

On the plaza under the bulb, one man moved. He looked over at them with a slightly worried look on his face. But when he saw them, the expression melted into a wide smile. He wore a policeman's uniform.

Sara stared. "Daddy?" she asked. It took a moment and a shove in the back by Dallas to get her running across the still plaza towards her father. She smacked into him and spun around twice, covering them both in her long hair. To her surprise, she was his height. She always remembered him from his knees up and inside a Coldsleep tube.

Sara stepped back and straitened her hair out and snapped a salute.

"Officer Sara Montgomery of the SEEDS Security Force reporting, sir!" she grinned. He returned the salute and stood back a step.

"So, you're my daughter, are you?" he cracked. "Cindy won't tell me how you got here, or why. She just wanted to show me I guess." He looked up at the bulb overhead. "But I do know why," he added. "And I guess she'll remove that from my memory of this."

Sara's smile vanished. She walked up to her father and held him. "Daddy, I know too… I don't want this to end, ever… but I have a mission to fill, and I must find a way back."

"A way back is in the works as we speak," Cindy said from behind her wall of glass. "Your friends in the future are busy preparing a way back."

"Yea, if anyone could come up with a plan, it would be Lexington," Dallas said as he joined up with the group.

Sara looked back at the girls. "Mother, just who are they?" she asked. She was surprised to hear her father laugh.

"They are my nieces," he said.

"You are temporarily living in his sister's life," Cindy told them.

"And he's a pretty good likeness of her boyfriend," Mike said. He then craned his neck to look at the girls. "Why are they brunettes?"

Sara stifled a laugh. "Something about covering up marker in the hair," she said. She looked back at her father to find him pinching his eyes.

"Mother is going to kill her," he grunted.

Sara looked up at the bulb. "So where are the two we replaced?" she asked.

"They are safe in The Source, being held out of time and space," Cindy said. "It was the way that you were sent here that did that to them. As soon as you are returned, they will be returned no worse for wear."

Sara nodded. "Mother, if you know I'm here, then do you know my mission?"

"DO NOT ANSWER THAT, NOR ASK ANY QUESTIONS FURTHER ON THAT MATTER," a strangely synthetic voice boomed. "TO DO SO WILL HARM THE FUTURE. SAM-System Unit 1."

"He has a gentle calming way, doesn't he?" a man said walking around some people statues.

"You're that guy from earlier!" Dallas barked. "Are you a Plant?"

"No, I am an observer," he said while shielding his face with the rim of the ConEd cap he wore.

Sara stepped forwards. "I remember you now! You're…"

"SHHHHH!!" the man said. "It's a secret! Say it now, and some will know the future!" Sara clasped her mouth and slammed her mind shut. "I am here to make sure that history is not breeched by this snafu from the future."

"What about the others?" Sara asked. "Who else was sent back?"

The man adjusted his hat. "Five years from now, Meryl Stryfe will have a rendezvous with Nova, the Super Plant just outside of San Francisco. She has a guaranteed return as her time-line was never cut. You and Dallas here though have broken lines. The folks in the future will have to find a way to snag you back properly. The real problem is Millie Thompson and Nicholas Wolfwood."

Sara snapped to attention. "Wolfwood? What's he doing here?"

The man turned away. "Wolfwood was taken with Thompson to 1894 Oklahoma, where they started a family – a large family. One of their descendants was Rem Saverem. Returning her will be tricky, not to mention, seeing that a side effect doesn't cause extra trouble."

"What would that be?" Sara queried.

"Wolfwood," the man said. "Even though he thought he wasn't, he was still a Plant. The core energy used by the Council of Plants was still the basis for his body back then."

Sara held her hand to her face. "That would mean…"

"…that all but one of their offspring has Plant in them," he finished for her, "and yes – INCLUDING Rem Saverem, though by her generation, it had been pretty much watered down, but its there nonetheless. I must be going… as you should be soon. Be ready." The man then turned and vanished into the crowd of statues.

----------------------------------------

The next day was a dry day at the homestead. Wolfwood and Millie decided to venture out to the nearest town to see what the neighbors were like. Plus, the page marked 'DEED' that he had found mentioned in one of the scribbled parts that as soon as they arrived on their lands, they should contact the territorial land commission at any local fort. He also wanted to make sure, for Millie's sake, that there was a medical facility available, though he dreaded the thought of what it might be like.

"I've birthed a calf," Millie said with a wry smile. "Unfortunately, I was the youngest, so it was my sisters and brothers who learned how to assist in births."

Wolfwood rocked back and forth on the buckboard as it rolled along the path. "Well, it wouldn't be the first time for me, but they're always messy." He pulled the cart to a stop. "Would you look at that," he remarked.

The path crossed a creek. It was a little high from the rain, but passable.

"What the hell did they do in the future to make this place uninhabitable?" he asked. "There would be people who would kill on Gunsmoke for flowing water like that."

Millie pressed into his shoulder. "The wonders of this world," she said. "It's like a dream come true!"

Wolfwood looked over at her. "I don't know about you, but I sure wish I still had my motorcycle."

Millie giggled. "You'll just have to invent one!"

He sighed. He also would kill for a cigarette… withdrawal, thy name is Millie!

"Git movin', critter!" he told the horse. The black stallion looked back and snorted.

"Now Diamond Mane, he didn't mean it like that," Millie cheerfully told the horse. "Please…"

He snorted again and bumped the horse beside him. They both continued on through the creek.

"Diamond Mane?" Wolfwood asked.

"If they're supposed to be our horses, we should name them," Millie said frankly.

He looked at the rumps that were bouncing up and down in front of them, then back at Millie. "Really… well, I did name my bikes… Have you named the other one?"

She cracked one of her patented smiles. "Betsy!"

"Betsy?" he asked, knowing he would regret it.

"Uh huh! That was the name of my favorite thomas back home!"

He returned to looking forwards. "I should'a known it!"

Diamond Mane looked back and snorted as if saying 'you asked, dummy!' Wolfwood broke into laugher.

It took the better part of the day, but the trail did finally find civilization, or what passed as such in these wilds. They did get a chance to see some of their neighbors, though the first shack they saw was nearly two hours into their journey. It was nearly midday when they finally found the authority in their region – The United States Army post at Fort Supply, Oklahoma Territory. It was a complete community behind a stockade fence. There was a hospital, a grocery PX, and a supply shack. There was also a chapel and the first place Wolfwood wanted to see, the Territorial Commissioner's Office. Millie took her bushel of eggs into the PX to barter them.

"Ah, yes," the small man in the office who introduced himself as Mr. Barnet said as he looked at the paper that Wolfwood handed him. "I take it you just arrived at the homestead then?"

"Two days ago," Wolfwood said. "But we're not sure just what we have there."

The man looked over his glasses at Wolfwood. "We?"

Wolfwood cleared his throat. "Yes, my wife and I… She's over at the PX trading eggs…"

The man snickered. "I hope they're the fresh ones," he said. "These agents set up these homesteads so fast sometimes, then send raw settlers into them… first thing they do is bring in their eggs, only to find most stink to the high heavens."

"Ah," Wolfwood smiled. "Well, my wife was raised on a farm. She knows her way around the rotten eggs in this world."

"Indeed," the man said returning to his document without catching the joke. "Well, your agent was generous. You have one of the largest homesteads I've seen so far. It looks like one thousand twenty square acres that runs along the North Canadian River and the Kiowa Creek. I hope you're expecting to raise cattle, 'cause that's a bushel of land there, son."

"Praised be!" Wolfwood said while sweating. What the hell was he going to do with a thousand twenty acres of grass and wood?

The man looked up at the comment. "Oh yes, that's right. You're supposed to be a man of the cloth, aren't you? Well, you'll be wanting to visit Pastor North at the chapel then."

Wolfwood smiled. "As a matter of fact, he was my next stop!"

The man pulled out a new deed and laid it out next to the scratch-pad version Wolfwood had given him. "Very well, Mr. Saverem… This is your new deed, with the mortgage paid for the first year…"

"Excuse me," Wolfwood interrupted. "What did you call me?"

The man looked over his glasses at him again. "Mr. Saverem… that is your name isn't it?"

"Yes Charlie, that's his name," someone said from outside the door to the office. Wolfwood looked back and saw a dirty man who had obviously been chopping wood or something – he was covered in chips. "Nice to meet you _again_ Reverend Saverem," he said holding his hand out to shake his.

"If you say so, Pastor North," the man said behind the desk. He stamped the deed twice and held out a quill pen. "Sign here, Mr. Saverem."

As they left the office, and Wolfwood stuffed the new deed into his jacket pocket, he mumbled to North "You know my name isn't Saverem, right?"

"Not at all," the pastor said in a coy manner.

"Thought so," Wolfwood smiled.

North slapped him on the shoulder. "Come on over to the chapel… we'll discuss this further."

They sat on the porch of the small church and watched the world go by, as it were.

"So, how much do you know?"

North laughed. "More than you, Mr. Wolfwood. We know everything."

Wolfwood looked at him. "You're part of that observation group that I ran into back on Gunsmoke, aren't you?"

"Yes and no," the pastor admitted. "I am part of that group, but I'm also part of a larger group that takes care of cases like yours. You are on a mission, Chapel of the Gung-Ho Guns."

Wolfwood nearly pulled the Colt out, but North's hand was on his shoulder before he could. He shook his head and looked him square in the eyes.

"Your mission, whether you choose to do it or not, is to forget that you were ever part of a group like that, and live a long and prosperous life here with that wonderful woman coming over here now."

Wolfwood looked over towards the grocery - Millie was heading for them happy as a lark.

"You see Nicholas, you have the chance to start over now," North continued. "A new life - a new world - a new purpose. You have a wife who will be starting a family soon. If you thought what you left was nasty, just you wait for this one. Trading bullets will be nothing to the anguish of the changing of the diaper. You'll have great joys together, and possibly great sorrows. And we will be here all the way to help you."

Wolfwood looked at the pastor. "Then you're different than the observers," he noted.

North shrugged. "Some are destined to observe – others to intervene… I work with them, but not for them. My group is here to do what the observers can't do. They know the history. They documented it. But we make sure it falls where it's supposed to fall. And in your case, survival of the Saverem family is essential. The lives of nearly one billion humans depend on it."

"Geeze, don't put too much pressure on me now," Wolfwood said. "You're kidding, aren't you?"

He looked over at North. His face was now stony as he looked over at him out of the corner of his eye.

"Rem Saverem," he said.

"Oh damn," Wolfwood gasped. "Vash's lady… This is all because of VASH!?"

North stood up. "Not at all. Rem was responsible for saving your ancestor, when she altered the commands Knives had placed in the landing computer's buffers. A descendant of yours will save your life before you are even born."

Wolfwood stared at the ground - That was a wild thought.

"Well, you look happy," North said to the arrival of Millie. "Did Mr. Burnside cut you a good deal on your eggs?"

"Did he ever! Thank you Pastor North!" Millie showed Wolfwood the money he gave her for the bushel. "He said they were the best eggs he had seen in months!"

"Burnside is a good judge of eggs," North smiled. "He's a bit of a pain in the tail, but a good businessman."

Wolfwood stood up and took Millie by the hand.

"Hey honey, why don't we renew our vows? You know make it official?" he suggested. Millie looked at the ground, then up at the Pastor.

"You mean take your vows, now don't you?" North laughed. "Well, the witness doesn't need to know that! Let me get Barnet."

Millie watched him head for the TCO's house. "He knows?" she asked with a puzzled expression on her face.

Wolfwood raised her hands to his face. "He's here to help us. He'll make this," he said pointing to the ring, "official. Just remember, in front of the witness, this is a renewal."

"But I don't get it pastor," they heard Mr. Barnet complain as North lead him towards the chapel. "They're married already, right? Otherwise they couldn't get a deed like that."

"I told you, Charlie… It's called renewing your vows! They're starting a new life out here on the frontier, so why not do it with renewed vows? It's very Californian."

The bookkeeper looked up at him. "Californian?" he asked.

"On the other side of the country," North said while whisking him in the door. Wolfwood and Millie couldn't help from laughing.

The ceremony was short and sweet. Mr. Barnet cried.

"You may kiss the bride," North said as he closed his bible. He waited a minute to turn his stand around where a marriage certificate waited for them to sign. Barnet signed under the witness line then noticed a mark on the side of the page.

"You do know this needs to be notarized," he said. "And since I'm the notary, and I was the witness, I can't place my seal on this."

"No problem," North said as he dusted the paper with ink-dry. "We'll just use your backup Mr. Burnside to notarize it." He reached out for Wolfwood's hand. "Congratulations… ahem… again…" He added a wink. "May god give you peace and prosperity! Now, let's get this notarized."

As they exited the chapel, they were surprised by a squad of soldiers in line from the door. North looked over group and laughed.

"Corporal Tolefson, were you snooping in on us again?" the pastor asked.

"Can't miss a good wedding now can we, SIR!" he said. "PREEEEESENT ARHLS!" he then shouted. The six men raised their rifles high over their head and crossed tips.

"Aren't we supposed to be in the army for this?" Wolfwood chided.

"Out here, they need the practice! GO!" North barked.

----------------------------------------

November 5th, 1965, Cedar Sinai Hospital, Los Angeles.

Room 807

He sat beside the bed listening to the repetitive bleep of the machinery. Her breathing was slow. A doctor stepped into the room and looked over at the man in the chair and smiled.

"Hey Nick," he said.

"Well," he replied, "if it isn't Vash the Stampede… or a reasonable facsimile."

The doctor laughed. "Every time I come in here, you call me that. He must have been some character." He looked over at the charts that were hung by the door and marked his visit.

"He was one of a kind," Wolfwood said. "Just like my Millie here."

"How's she doing tonight?" the doctor asked coming over to the edge of the bed to look her over.

"The same as this morning," he said. "Seems she's reliving some of her past."

The doctor nodded. "That does happen. Have you contacted the family yet?"

Wolfwood nodded. "I've got my eldest son and my grandson rounding up the folks." He looked up at the man. "How long?" he asked.

The doctor looked over at him. "Are you in any rush?"

Nicholas snorted. "No way. I want to have her with me as long as I can. But I'd rather not be surprised either. We're just plain folk, you know. A simple answer will suffice."

The doctor sighed. "You've always been a straight shooter, Mr. Saverem. Then I'll be straight with you. She probably won't last the night."

Wolfwood pulled in a breath of air in time with his wife. "71 years… damn long time. Damn long time indeed. Thank you doctor."

"Nnnn… Nicholas David Wolfwood, yy-you get your ass in here…" Millie mumbled.

The doctor looked at her then at Wolfwood.

"My real name," Wolfwood smiled. "Was she surprised when she heard what my middle name was."

"Meryl, get to milking those cows…" She briefly opened her eyes then closed them again. "Damn ceiling needs painting again Nicholas."

"Yes dear," he said. He took her hand and held it in his. She squeezed it.

The doctor stepped over to his side of the bed and patted Wolfwood on the shoulder. "I'll check in about an hour or so. You try and get some rest, okay Nick?" He nodded to the doctor as he left.

"Claire, stop chasing David with that stick!" Millie recounted. He thought it was interesting that all she seemed to recount was the life they had together on Earth, and never as far back as Gunsmoke. Maybe they will come towards the end.

He dreaded the end. What was he going to do without his beloved Millie? 71 years… damn long time to be married. Damn long time to be together, to finally have that companionship yanked away by age and death. Damn long time.

"Huh! Oh my!"

Wolfwood looked up over the side of the bed to a vision he never thought he'd see again.

"Meryl? Meryl Stryfe?"

----------------------------------------

Nova looked down on Meryl as she wept. "Meryl… I feel that you will be returning shortly."

Meryl nodded and stood up. She looked up at the massive Plant that was above her. "This has been one hell of a week," she said wiping her face on her sleeve.

"Be prepared," Nova noted. "Your missions will only get tougher as they go."

"Swell," Meryl grimaced. "And where will you be?"

Nova sighed. "Here. I'm too large to leave with the others when SEEDS departs."

"That's a shame," Meryl said. "I would have liked to meet you, outside of your vessel that is."

Nova smiled. "Someday, you just might. But you are traveling with three of my kind. With any of them, you will be with a piece of me. But be warned… There are those of my kind that will attempt to harm you, as the one did that sent you here." Meryl nodded.

Suddenly, a white line split the room near the stairs. Meryl felt a tug towards it.

"It is time," Nova said. "Good luck Meryl Stryfe of the Bernardelli Insurance Society."

Meryl was hoping for a graceful exit. She didn't get it. She found herself being yanked as if she had a rope tied to her waist. A jolt and she was in a yellowish haze that left the Air Force base far behind. She looked up and saw a dark spot that was growing in size.

It sounded like a whip to her. She was in the engine room of the Steamer. She looked around to find that the small unit with the glowing pike was active again, but not looking at all well. The larger Plant above it was glowing as usual. But… that wasn't the same Plantoid she had seen earlier.

"Lexington? LEXINGTON!"

He pointed at the smaller Plant that was panting beside his unit.

"Hey," it said. "I won't be able to do this very long, so let's get cracking!"

Meryl stormed over to the broken regen unit. "What is Lexington doing in that Plant!?" she shouted. The small lady acted as if she had a hangover as she covered her ears."

"Miss Stryfe, please, we don't have much time! Lexington is giving me power so we can get everyone back! But you seem to be the only one with a strong enough time line to go back and forth through the corridor you just came through. But I can't last long in this broken unit! We must hurry!"

She held out the pike again. Another white line lit up the room.

"You are their only hope to getting back here!"

Meryl looked up at Lexington. He was gesturing to get in the hole that the little Plant had created. She nodded and stepped over the slice.

"So, what do I do?" she asked.

Horloge at this point got impatient. "Just jump in!" she screamed as she poked Meryl with the hot end of the pike.

"Why that…" Meryl cursed as she fell through the hole again. She looked back at the entrance from the engine room as it got smaller. In front of her was sunshine.

"It is time to go," Cindy told Sara and Dallas. As they watched, a slice of white split the center of the plaza. Meryl stepped out and saw her targets.

"Sara! Over here! Quickly!" she shouted. She then noticed the young officer hugging a man under the Plant. She looked up at the bulb and at the figure behind the glass. She smiled back at her and waved.

"Take care of my Sara," resounded in her mind. Meryl gasped. It was Cindy! And who was this enormous man walking over towards her?

For that matter… why was everyone else in this place standing like statues?

"Daddy, I love you!" Sara said as she released her hold on him. She then jogged over to the hole, gave a quick look back at them and jumped in, followed by Dallas and a confused Meryl, who also looked back for a moment before jumping in. She could have sworn she saw two people materialize back by the Plant.

She arrived at the Steamer to the shouts of Sara.

"Lexington! NO!"

He shrugged from inside the Plant bulb.

"Well, that's that," the small Plantoid said. "It's been a pleasure doing business with you all…"

"HEY!" Meryl yelled. "What about Millie and Wolfwood!?"

"They lived their lives out in the past. There's no helping them," Horloge said as she began to retract. Sara stepped over and slapped a button that said 'LOCK' on the side of the machine. Horloge looked up.

"You're wrong," Sara snarled. "That time hole is regressive. We came back at the same age we left!"

"Then what are we waiting for!" Meryl shouted. "Open the hole and let me get them!"

Horloge gasped. "Look, I'm almost out of power… and wonder-boy up there can't feed me enough to sustain this form without a vessel for very much longer. I'm not sure I can make it for another one. I'm sure I won't be able to get it all the way back to the time they arrived there."

"You don't have to," Meryl barked. "Just get me to 1965."

Horloge looked confused at her. "1965? Why that year?"

"Don't ask, just DO, or you'll die here!" Sara growled. She found that her uniform and the silver gun were back on her again, and she was sticking the gun's muzzle to the Time-Witch's ear.

The slot opened and Meryl looked in.

"Good luck," Sara said.

"You'll need it," Horloge added.

----------------------------------------

"Wolfwood, is that you?" Meryl asked the old man in the chair next to his wife. "Is that Millie?"

Wolfwood stood up and took a better look at the young lady who was standing outside a rip in time. A faint voice was echoing behind her to hurry, as the source of the rip was failing.

Meryl," he said. "She's dying. The doctor says she won't last the night."

Meryl stepped over to the side of the bed. "Wolfwood, we've got to get her through the time hole. Sara says that it is regressive – that means she'll be just as young as she was when she fell through it in the first place! So will you!"

"Me?" he asked.

"No, not him," a voice behind them said. Meryl and Wolfwood looked back and saw a man by the door.

"Urr… Pardon me," Wolfwood said, "but don't I know you from somewhere?"

The man stepped through the hole, looked back at it, then held out his hand to shake the feeble one that was being held out. "I married you two, remember?"

Wolfwood's eye opened wide. "North! Pastor North! What a surprise!"

North smiled, but was all business. "Look, we don't have much time. Miss Stryfe is right, if we want to save Millie's life, she must get in the time hole now BEFORE she dies here, or she won't make it back."

"But, what about Wolfwood," Meryl started then remembered. "Oh, that's right - he dies… umm… later." North nodded.

Wolfwood looked down on Millie and stroked her cheek. "If she goes with you, will I see her again?"

North smiled. "Of course you will. You are still needed for the trial, remember?"

Wolfwood looked up. "The trial… the trial of Millions Knives, yes, I nearly forgot about that."

"You're more than a witness now," Meryl said. "He killed your descendant."

He looked at Meryl and patted her on the cheek.

"You take my Millie… make her young again." He sat down and watched.

"Okay, here we go," North said. He pulled out a device and opened it. "Mr. Tolefson, take your readings please." He then held a rod over the body and waved it about.

"Readings accepted. Standing by," the communications device said.

North removed all the taped pads and contacts that had been inserted or placed on Millie's body and lifted her up. Another man entered the room and assisted him as she was dead weight.

"Okay Tolly," he said under the strain. "Now!"

Meryl was shocked to see another old Millie materialize in the bed, though this one wasn't breathing. "What is that?" she gasped.

"Transmat cadaver," North replied as he put all the gadgets on the body he had taken off Millie. "It's an exact duplicate of her, just not living. We have to leave them something."

Meryl looked back at Wolfwood, who was smiling and waving to her.

"You take care now, hear?" she said. "Don't go doing anything foolish!"

"See you Meryl," he said. "See you in the future!"

North and the orderly assisted draping Millie over Meryl's shoulder. "Careful, wouldn't want to fall in there ourselves… Paperwork you know…"

"Okay, one – two – THREE!" the orderly chanted, and tossed the two girls into the hole.

Meryl clung to her friend as they ascended the warp. She watched as the years melted off her, and the youthful Millie reappeared. When she opened her eyes, those bright blue eyes… Meryl just sighed.

"Meryl, I just had the most amazing dream," Millie said. "I think I want to go back to sleep and dream it again!"

They dropped into the engine room with a thud. The hole closed and nearly all were accounted for.

----------------------------------------

December 15, 1966 – Cedar Sinai Hospital, Los Angeles

Room 807

The doctor entered the room and looked at the charts. He looked over at the frail man in the bed and sighed.

"What?" he asked. "No 'look who's here, Vash the Stampede?' for me?"

Wolfwood smiled from under the air nozzle. He feebly waved to the doctor to come over.

"What was all that ruckus about earlier today?" he whispered to him. "I could barely get any sleep!"

The doctor looked at him with surprise. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm surprised you could hear all that. I guess you didn't hear then."

"Hear what?" he fought to ask.

"Walt Disney – he died this morning. The noise was from the television crews and the people from WED Enterprises. It was a real circus."

"Huh," Wolfwood said. "Mickey Mouse died?" The doctor nodded yes.

"His daddy did at least. Well, you're still about the same, Nick. You might live until you're 100."

"I am 100," he gurgled. "Or at least I could be."

The doctor patted him on the shoulder. "I'll be back in an hour. Get some rest."

"Don't have any more celebrities die then!" he said, leaving the doctor laughing as he left.

"I thought he'd never leave," North said from behind the closet door. Wolfwood looked over at his friend and laughed.

"Somehow, I kinda knew you were the grim reaper," Wolfwood said.

North shrugged. "Not at all. The grim reaper takes lives away, not gives lives. It's time for you to return to Gunsmoke. The trial will be soon."

"Oh, are you going to do the same thing to me that you did to my Millie?" he asked.

"No," North said as he drew a large bell jar out of the closet with him. Inside was a tiny Plant.

"What is that?" Wolfwood grumbled.

"That is where you came from, Nicholas D. Wolfwood," he stated. "You forget that you were a human soul inside a temporary Plant body, which is what this is. The only reason you aged was because your human mind said you would. You could have stayed young like Vash nearly forever. But that wouldn't have been nice to Millie to do that, now would it have been?"

"No," he said as he rested his head back on the pillow. "What do I have to do?"

North placed the jar next to him on a table. "Just sit back and let the Plant do the rest," he told him.

"That's easy for you then… You don't get air sick!"

Wolfwood felt like he was flying. He saw his old body below and North to one side, who was watching him much to his surprise. He then felt the tug of the jar and let himself get absorbed into it.

"Oh that makes me sick! Damn it!"

----------------------------------------

The wings were back. Wolfwood sat against the central fountain in Angel Wings and watched the few clouds on Gunsmoke drift by. He would watch some of the cadets train and drill, or do whatever these odd cadets would do. He then would sit back and enjoy a drink.

Cigarettes… he couldn't stand them anymore. Damn that Millie, she really was the devil in an angel's garb!

He laughed. Maybe he should join them. He had been happy in his life with her. He could be again, except that this time, there was a finale.

"Will I ascend for my life with her, or will I fall because of my first life? God, only you can tell me. I've been blessed with two lives… this one counts as my third… or half… whichever. The truth is, even in my life with her, there were some things I wasn't proud of. I guess that's just what it means to be human. But I tried to be the best husband I could for her, right?"

The Tunnel Steamer rolled along with its new power Plant. Dallas was up at the controls and Sara was dealing with the daily reports of news of violence brought on by the new enemy. Meryl and Millie were mostly reflective while lying about in Millie's room.

"I'm sorry about your child not being here now," Meryl told her partner. "It must be hard…"

"Not at all," Millie said gleefully. "I know that she grew up and had a wonderful life. You know I named her Meryl, didn't you?"

She sat and held her breath. "You didn't!"

"Yup! Meryl, David, Lexy, I named them all after friends and family," she said, "though we never considered Vash or Knives, as that might affect history!" She sat down and looked at her hand. Meryl saw the expression on her friend's face change from happiness to deep thought, almost sadness. Then she saw what she was looking at.

"Millie, what is that?" she asked.

"It is our wedding band," she said. "I found it in the dresser in the pantry the day we arrived in Oklahoma. You know…"

"What?"

Millie cupped her hands together as if she were praying, and placed them on her face while staring at the floor. "We never knew or found out who 'S' was."

oOo

**Next****Episode**

_**A pallet of color **_

To many, it means the start of creativity.

To one, it means death.

Brandywine the Artist paints a surreal scene with the eye of a creative soul and the hand of a killer

_**Be ready to critique and be critiqued. **_

Next Episode of TRIGUN: MOON CHILD - Chapter Seven - Artist's License

Rendering and layout was never like this.**  
**  
Strom (man in ConEd uniform), North, Tolefson, GENUINE DOORKNOB, The Observers ©2003 DMS – used with permission  
Nova the Plant, Alex Thatcher, Thornton AFB, Mr. Burnside, Lexy (Alexis Victoria Saverem), Claire (Claire Anne Saverem), ©2002 S. Nordwald – Used with permission  
Charlie Barnet ©2003 The Estate of Charlie Barnet

Walt Disney, Mickey Mouse, WED Enterprises ©2003 Walt Disney Productions

Special thanks for the following reference guides and other oddities –

World Book Encyclopedia (1965 Edition)  
Microsoft Encarta 2002  
Microsoft Streets & Trips 2002  
The Oklahoma Tourist Guide – Fort Supply page

…And to Charlie Barnet, who I added as a VERY inside joke. For those who don't know, Mr. Barnet was a Big Band Orchestra Leader. One of his most famous songs was "Cherokee" – The state of Oklahoma is where the Cherokee live, hence Mr. Barnet being the TCO of Fort Supply. Silly me!

All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow

Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0311.16


	10. Artist's License

**Chapter Seven**

TRIGUN:**  
****MOON CHILD****  
****Artist's License**

**By R. A. Stott**

"Boss! Boss! We can't hold him back! That gun of his is just too strong!"

The bandit was odd looking – it was as if he was wearing a boiler-plate over his face. The lenses on his helmet were cracked and the unit was dented – colorful bands that had wrapped his shoulders were shattered - behind him, explosions and swearing could be heard.

The man he called 'boss' sat in a chair and glowered at the floor. Even seated he seemed to loom over top of him. On his shoulders was a pair of dynamos that hid massive machine guns and power plants. They vibrated as he grumbled.

"What is this crap – it doesn't sparkle – it has no style!" he cursed. "ARE WE GOING TO BE BROUGHT DOWN BY ONE SCRAWNY DISHWATER DULL LOOSER!? THERE IS NO BRILLIENCE TO THIS! THERE IS NO GLOW! I WANT THIS FAKER DROWNED IN A CRIMSON SHOWER OF HIS OWN BLOOD! THAT WILL BE THE ONLY WAY THAT HE COULD SHINE!"

The men around him cheered as they dashed out of the room towards the outer wall of his stronghold. B.D.N. rose from his chair and opened a locker next to his desk. He pulled out a special gun, long and shiny, complete with an array of neon tubes that wrapped it in a rainbow of glowing colors.

"It looks like I myself will have to bring this dull boy down," he gritted. He slid open a small door on his right dynamo and inserted a wire from the gun into it.

"Jack me Philo," he told a small man who had been sitting in the corner of the room. The man swallowed. He opened a drawer at the bottom of the locker and pulled out a heavy cable. He climbed on the desk and opened two more hatches on the backs of the dynamos. There he inserted the plugs on the cables, joining the two power units together.

"You're smokin', boss," he said as he slapped the right dynamo, "212 to 212. Give 'em sparks!"

"Are they sparklin'?" B.D.N. asked with his usual panache.

"You light up the night boss," Philo said as he sat down on the edge of the table. He had to cling to the edge as an explosion rocked the room. Outside the door, a few bodies flew by all twisted and distorted. B.D.N. looked back at the small man.

"Better have my overdrive ready," he said. He then exited the room.

"The… the overdrive?" Philo winced as sweat poured off his face. He quickly jumped into a small door in the wall beside him and scurried down a narrow tunnel that seemed only large enough for him to move through. He emerged in a large room deep in the heart of the mountain. He looked up.

The Plant looked down at him. She looked up briefly as a shockwave from another blast rocked the room.

"Baby, he's asked for his overdrive," Philo said to the girl behind the glass. She placed her hands over her face. He shook his head. "Yea, I know baby… but he is the boss… I've gotta do it, or he'll do us both, you know that."

The Plant lowered her hands and looked at the small man. She reached down and placed her hands on the glass. He did the same on the opposite side.

"I love you, baby," he said as he felt a wave of energy flow through him. He then dropped below the bulb and reached for a cable that was attached to a belt. He dragged it out and strapped it to his waist. He took a look back at his Plant then jumped into another narrow hole in the wall that lead up towards the front of the stronghold dragging the cable behind him.

Another explosion caused him to get bounced like the clapper of a bell within his own private pathway through the mountain. He rubbed his head where it had struck the ceiling twice, no three times. "Good thing it's my hardest spot!" he kidded himself as he continued up the shaft towards a grill.

Philo popped out of a wall near a pile of debris. He looked about for B.D.N. and saw him near a group of his men to his left. Another explosion rocked the tunnel he had emerged in forcing him towards the outer wall. He stuck his head out a hole that had been blasted through to see just what was doing all this damage to the fortress.

Down below was a single figure. From what he could see, it was holding a shotgun. But then it was fired, and he was jarred out of the hole. He hung from the end of the cable waiting the worst as the shotgun was turned towards him.

Behind him deep in the mountain, the Plant sensed that Philo was in danger and retracted the cable. He was sucked through the hole again just as the gun blasted the wall near him.

"Wasn't that sweet!" B.D.N. bellowed. "Nice diversion Philo. That sparkled with glitter!"

Philo waved his hand from the rubble he landed in. "Whatever boss," he mumbled.

B.D.N. took this chance to swing his large gun over the edge of the wall and point it at their attacker. He revved up both dynamos and readied a salvo. But as he let fly his bolt of energy, the shotgun was turned to the side and was used to deflect the round into the nearby mountains. A curved aura was all that the men in the stronghold had seen as the burst had been diverted. B.D.N. snorted.

"Not flashy enough," he fumed as he ejected a large shell like battery from the gun that clanked on the ground. "I need to make a statement! PHILO! THE OVERDRIVE!"

The small man scrambled to his feet and dragged the cable over to his leader. He removed it from his belt and plugged it into a center coupling in the cable he had installed earlier. He then took a wrench and clanked a housing coupler, sending a signal back down the line to his Plant. She grimaced and sent all she could through the cable.

"You're hot, boss!" Philo yelped as he dove for cover, followed by most of the men around him.

B.D.N. stepped to the top of the wall, exposing himself to the stranger's gun, but also putting his own firearm in a position to deliver its maximum potential.

"THIS IS HOW IT'S DONE, SCUM BAG!" he shouted. "I'LL SHOW YOU HOW TO BE FLASHY WITH STYLE! I'LL GIVE YOU A SHOW THAT YOU'LL REMEMBER FOR ALL ETRNITY! THIS WILL BE BEAUTIFUL!"

Pulling the trigger caused all the neon tubing around the barrel of the gun to explode. The energy released from the muzzle caused the wall he was standing on to crumble, and kicked him back off it like a rocket motor launching a missile. But his aim was straight and true, and the area where the shotgun wielding stranger had been was instantly changed to molten rock.

The roar of the blast echoed off the hills for minutes after the shot was fired, as was the sound of rock and debris falling. B.D.N. found himself at the base of the wall to his outer office with the withered chunk of metal that had formally been his special weapon.

"Now that had pizzazz!" he grinned. He listened to the silence that was around him. Something wasn't right. There was a slight sound – as if one person was clapping?

He stepped over to what was the wall a moment ago and looked down the ravine. Below, the stranger stood applauding him.

"Very flashy," was heard from the bottom of the gully. "Allow me to show you how a real artist works! We do it in MASTER STROKES!"

"Boss!" one of his henchmen yelped. "That's a dame!"

She raised the shotgun up and transformed it into an Angel Arm. She then pointed it at the hill directly before her.

"NO! BABY, NOOO!" Philo shouted as he saw where she was aiming.

His Plant gasped as his thoughts touched her for the last time.

Horloge smiled as she flexed her new finger. She could feel her sister's scream of anguish as she was used again to kill, though this time, possibly kill one of their own. She ran the new digit down Sandusky's back making him jump.

"Dear, must you do that when I'm busy?" he complained as he worked on the adjustments to a shotgun.

"Humm," she smiled. "Our latest delivery is having fun with her new brush and canvas."

He looked over his shoulder at her. "Painting the town red is she?"

Horloge laughed. "Yes, I guess you could call it that!" She popped open a pocket watch and bemused herself by slowing time around herself to make everyone in her mind talk funny. No one noticed, though Sandusky did note that for some reason, she would chuckle and it would sound like a chipmunk.

Philo had to hold back at first – fire was shooting out of the tunnel that he would normally scramble down. As soon as the flames had subsided, he was down one before anyone could hold him back.

"Boss, shouldn't we stop him?" one of the henchmen asked as he looked down the hole in the wall.

"His woman is down there – let him be," B.D.N. said as he dropped the cable that had powered his gun.

The henchman looked at B.D.N. puzzled. "His woman? The only thing down there was the old Plant!"

The large gunman looked down on the man. "No kidding," he said in a low rumble, making the bandit wince. "Alright scum, listen up! Obviously, this is no longer flashy or fun. I want 6 of the shiniest of you to back me up – the rest… get the hell out of here through the lighthouse – got that?"

"But boss!" one complained. "We can't leave you like this!"

"Yea," another one harped in. "We'd never live it down with the other groups out there! They'd slaughter us!"

B.D.N. grabbed one of the whiners by the scruff of the neck. "What? You have some friggin' resume on you? Outside of this boiler-plated turkey suit no one knows what you look like stupid! Now get the hell out of here! You don't shine anymore!" He tossed the one in the direction he wanted them to go. Many followed as another blast hit the compound. He looked at the 6 men who were staying.

"Okay men, this is all about presentation!" He looked over the edge at the woman with the now BIG weapon. "If she's an artist, I would think she'd appreciate a little proper layout! You three go to the left – you others, to the right. Don't stay at the same level along the wall. I want to show her how neon tubes curve! Make us sparkle! Make this spectacular!"

"Right boss!" they all said and scattered to their respective locations.

"BRILLIANCE DYNAMITE NEON!" the woman yelled up the hill. "MY NAME IS BRANDYWINE THE ARTIST!"

"Well, a nice flashy name – full of fireworks and style," B.D.N. yelled back. "What's a pretty little thing like you doing with a huge gun like that?"

She smiled under her short bobbed and slightly spiked hair and long off-white jacket. "As a freelancer, I take what jobs are given me, sweets!" she smirked. "And my job right now is to paint you a picture of death, Brilliance!"

"Well, isn't that just so sparkly," B.D.N. noted. "And to what reason have I been given this pleasure?"

"Why simple, love," she said, powering up her arm. "It is my job to layout, paste-up and final render anyone who may help Vash the Stampede, and kill them!" She shrugged. "Sorry, but it's a job!"

"Vash? You damn fool! Don't you know that if I ever see that spiked haired freak of nature again that I swore I'd kill him!?"

Brandywine took aim. "My client can't take that chance," she said. "Besides, just the fact that you're human means that you'll be dead soon anyway."

"What the…" B.D.N. grimaced. "Aw, your show has no flash – it's a lame excuse and isn't dynamic enough! Let her have it men!"

Philo entered the remains of the Plant room. He found that the hole Brandywine had drilled through the solid stone structure had been precise, like someone had used a straight-edge ruler to draw a line. The bulb was almost intact, but a circular hole faced the matching hole in the far wall. At the bottom of the bulb lay a small naked woman, her legs oddly shaped, as if they had just started to form when she had been cut down. Philo ran over and grabbed a service ladder and climbed into the hole.

The haze of the yellow gas was still about, and he knew it would kill him if he breathed too much of it, but that wasn't going to stop him. He jumped in and slid down the inside of the bulb to his lady's side.

"Philo," she whispered to his surprise. "You'll die – get out…"

He gathered her up in his arms. "That doesn't matter now, baby," he said to her as he brushed her hair from her face. "I won't leave you like this." He coughed. "What is this stuff? It smells almost like roasting nuts…"

"It is based on a cyanide gas," she said. "You must get out of here now!"

Philo knocked on the glass behind him and looked up at the hole above them. "Too late for that now," he said. "I can't climb that, and I have nothing to break the glass with. Besides, I doubt that lady with that gun will let me live anyway…" He slumped over her and held her tight.

Above them, the roof of the room vanished in a massive flash of light. When the glow faded, blue sky shown into the bulb - A massive curved cut could be seen where the mountain once was.

"How is THAT for symmetrical?" Brandywine laughed. When no one responded she turned and headed down the hill from the wreckage she had created. She picked up a pallet and easel she had been carrying – she noted a bullet hole in the canvas frame – and strapped them to her back. She picked up her tackle-box of colors and strolled away whistling.

The final blast had shattered a section of the fortress which B.D.N. had fallen through. When he came to, he saw a face from his past and winced.

"Crap… Insurance Girls…"

"You're lucky to be alive, Mr. Neon," Meryl said to him as she placed a cold compress to his forehead.

"Yea," Millie added. "If Dallas hadn't hit the breaks when he did, we would have run right over you!"

He looked over to his right. A large machine with bright lights was sitting behind them chugging away. A hole in the ceiling was letting sunlight in from above. A ladder on top of the machine told him someone had climbed up.

Sara watched as Dallas slid down the inside of the bulb to the two bodies below. He checked on the man and shook his head.

"Can we save the Plant?" Sara asked.

"Yea, she looks like she could be restored," he said. He looked up at the damaged mounting unit and back down at her. "She seems awfully small to run a Plant this size though. I'm not sure she's the original Plantoid for this unit."

Sara nodded. "We'll have to check the serial number of this unit to confirm whose it was then."

Dallas waved Sara back as he readied his way out of the bulb. He reared back and planted his fist hard against the foot thick glass. Even Sara was shocked as he easily broke it. He was a big one… bigger than Lexington…

"Ow – ow – ow – ow!" he grimaced as he shook his hand about.

Sara sighed. She looked up at the missing ceiling and watched some birds fly by.

B.D.N. sat and watched the wrap be applied to a badly mangled hand – he asked for no pain killers, just a cleaning of the wound. Meryl stood back as Millie worked on it and was surprised to find how much smaller this former hulking man was without those massive dynamos on his shoulders.

"You say you found Philo in the bulb of his Plant?" he asked.

Sara nodded.

B.D.N. sighed. "He was… a good man," he said much to Meryl's surprise – he almost sounded emotional about his loss. "Best damn powermaster I had. And you say he was cradling her?"

Dallas was placing the glass bulb over the regen unit having just finished placing the small girl into it. He too nodded to the large man.

"I never really understood about those damn Plants," the outlaw said. "Philo had come into our group with her one day when I let it known that we were in need of a powermaster." He looked at the girl in the jar. "That was the last time I had seen her. I guess that was what that Plant was missing all that time – its core unit…"

He sighed. "Damn, that's classic - A real show stopper."

"Mr. Neon," Meryl asked while getting a notebook ready, "please could you tell us how all this started?"

B.D.N. snorted and gave a slight chuckle. "Little Missy, unless you're the law or the cavalry why should I tell you anything?"

B.D.N. was shocked to find himself being held off the floor by the collar of his jacket by Sara – the petit little blond who he had been keeping an eye on.

"Because I AM the law here, Mr. Neon," she said calmly. She placed him back in his chair with a thud.

"I believe that, ma'am!" he said, a bit flustered by her strength. "Geeze, I've been having my troubles with the ladies today, haven't I?"

"Besides, after all this help we're giving you, wouldn't you'd like to give us some Mr. Neon?" Millie added with her usual gleeful expression. B.D.N. gave her an odd look. He then roared with laugher.

"Lady, you have flash! You have style! HAW!" he bellowed. "Fine. Where should I start?"

"Why not at the beginning?" Meryl suggested. "Who was it that tore the top off your hideout?"

The smile left B.D.N.'s face. "Tore it off?" he asked.

"All gone," Millie added. "We only found two rooms, and both of them were open to the sky."

He sat back and thought a moment. Brandywine's words went through his mind - _"Besides, just the fact that you're human means that you'll be dead soon anyway."_ – He coughed, and the pain in his broken hand started to build.

"Crap…" he grumbled. "Okay, damn it." He reached for some pills that had been offered to him earlier and found Millie gleefully handing them to him with a glass of water.

"It had started early this morning," he reminisced. "Two of my men had found someone at the base of our hill with an easel and supplies painting the mountains. In hindsight, it probably would have been smarter for my boys to have just left that person alone, but my guys never been big on the smarts part…"

"BOSS!! BOSS!!" the strangely costumed bandit yelled as he climbed the steps to the hideout's offices.

"Beremy, what are you yowling about?" B.D.N. sniped from behind a planning desk. "You're makin' enough of a ruckus to wake the buzzhawks!"

"Boss," the second in command yelped, "two of our men found some stranger down at the base of the hill… when they went in to check on him, he shot them down with a single blast!"

B.D.N. sat back in his chair. "Well, that's not beautiful… Get the boys up, Beremy." There was then a long and drawn out rocking of the base as something slammed a wall nearby. The two men exited the office and looked up at a cloud of dust coming from a wall outside the compound.

The word "DIE" had been etched in the stone facade.

"Fancy greetings," the boss said.

The second ran back out of the room barking orders to the others in the staging areas. Philo watched him dash about kicking the stray sleeping Bad Lads or tossing guns into their hands. He looked back and saw the boss pointing at him.

"Great," he said as he walking into the office. He was shown a chair in the corner and told to sit in it.

"I don't know," B.D.N. said to the Insurance Girls. "Something inside me said that this wasn't gong to be some rival boss tryin' ta muscle in on the Bad Lads… it just didn't sparkle. I had Philo park his tail in my office just in case I had to bring out my show-pieces."

"A converted thruster rail and a beam weapon," Sara noted looking at the small pieces of the gun that B.D.N. had removed from his dynamos on the service deck. She then noticed the surprised look on the bandit's face.

"Lady, you know what that is?" he asked in confusion. "Philo slapped that thing together and told me that it would give me the same punch that Vash the Stampede had when he blew away July."

Meryl snorted. Sara smiled.

"Not exactly," she said. "A small representation at least." B.D.N. looked down.

"Really… Damn, now I wish I could see Philo again… I'd PUNCH HIS LIGHTS OUT!"

Millie and Meryl looked at him with a confused expression. He laughed.

"He swore that it would be enough," he continued. "But what happened after that, well, you can see what happened after that…"

"And the weapon used was more powerful than the one Vash used," Sara noted. B.D.N. winced.

"Shit… What sort of show would that have been?" He grimaced at the thought.

Dallas tapped on the side of the Lexington's Plant. They both gave a thumbs-up. Dallas started inserting the carbon rod into the rear of the regen unit. The girl inside woke up and looked around as the power from The Source was sent via Lexington's conduit. She seemed surprised at the sight of the strange people in the room around her, until she saw B.D.N. – she quickly acted as if she were covering herself up. The outlaw cleared his throat and looked aside. Sara looked back at him after looking at the girl a bit perplexed.

"You've got to be kidding," she murmured. She then swung around with her nightstick and walloped the outlaw, sending him sprawling across the table he was seated next to.

"YOU DISGUST ME MISTER," she shouted, "YOU REALLY DO!" Millie attempted to hold her back, but she would have had an easier time holding a mad bull.

"Please stop," a voice yelled. Sara found that it had come from the girl in the regen unit. The girl smiled at her with a weak but sad expression. "Philo would not approve of your actions, Officer Sara."

"Sara! Sara!" Meryl yelled while trying to grab the flaying baton. "What did he do?"

Sara stood up, sweat running off her forehead. She glared down on the man she had just administered a pummeling on. He seemed no worse for wear, though he did now have a look of fear in his face.

"This… man," she had a hard time saying, "raped her in exchange of not killing Philo the first night they arrived."

The girl looked down from her inverted position. "There was little we could do," she sent to Sara in a thought transmission, "but I did agree freely to do it."

Sara snapped a look back at her. "You did not agree freely – you were coerced." She looked back at Neon, who remained sprawled on the table.

"I never knew she was the power unit… believe me… I never knew…" he whispered. It got another belt from Sara.

"You even threatened this Philo after she disappeared," Sara snarled. "You demanded that she be brought back!"

B.D.N. looked up at her with shock. "How did you know that?" he gasped.

"I saw it in her mind," she said, pointing at the girl in the glass bulb. "Then I looked into history with my mind…" Sara looked up at Millie, who had taken a position between her and the outlaw.

"Miss Sara, please… settle down. You're an officer of the law, not the judge," the Insurance Girl said in a hushed voice.

Sara glared at her and nearly brought the stick to bear on her as well.

"SARA, STOP!" another voice commanded. She looked up at the ceiling and felt where it had come from. Her heart leapt to her throat and her knees felt as if they were about to collapse.

"M-mother… how…" she said.

"I am using all my strength to talk to you," the strained voice of Cindy echoed through the Steamer. "Sara, my child, Millie is correct."

"Mother, stop!" Sara started to weep. "You'll injure yourself transmitting through a Plant's containment vessel like that!"

"Justice, Sara… remember… Justice." The voice faded.

Sara wiped her face. "But how do I get justice for a violation of a Plant?" she cursed.

"I would place him under arrest then," Meryl said as she placed a hand on her shoulder. "Deliver him to the Council of the Plants for judgment."

B.D.N. sat up on that one. "Council of the PLANTS?!"

"Oh yes," Millie exclaimed as if this were a happy thing. "We're on a mission for the Council prior to the trial of Mr. Millions Knives! You'll be the next one I suppose!"

"WHAT!?" the outlaw bellowed as he was picked up by Dallas. "Where's your evidence!?"

"Time is our evidence, Neon," Meryl said smugly. "She can see history since she's part Plant!"

"And all I have to do is have someone confirm my read on it, and you'll be convicted," Sara said as she slipped the nightstick back in its holster. She looked at Millie and Meryl and gave a weak smile.

"I'm sorry girls. I nearly blew it."

"Hey, you're only human," Millie smiled. When she opened her eyes, she found Sara giving her a perplexed look. "Well, almost…"

The Steamer's brig wasn't very large, though it did have all the accommodations of the other cabins. But it was the smallest cabin, and to someone as large as B.D.N. it was pretty cramped. He leaned up against the back wall while sitting in the cot.

"Part Plant?" he wondered recalling what Meryl said. "How many of those damn things are there walking around?"

--------------------------------------

She had set up her easel at the edge of a dirt road and was starting to paint the mountains in the distance when a cloud of dust caught her attention. She quickly covered her canvas as to not get any of the flying dirt on the fresh gesso.

The man behind the wheel of the car was a bit round and squat. He was wearing a gray tweed suit and a large bowler hat. He slowed when he saw what the person along the side of the road was doing and approached without the dust storm he had been creating. She nodded and removed the covering from her canvas.

"Sorry," he said as he pulled up and tipped his hat. "I know how it is when someone ruins a work in progress like that." He looked at her for a moment and she at him.

"You're a Plant!" they both said almost simultaneously. They both laughed. He reached his hand out and shook hers.

"Boston," he introduced himself as.

"Brandywine," she replied.

"So, you're going to paint those mountains?" he asked. She nodded.

"It's in my blood I guess," she said looking back at the blank panel on her easel. "There were people always painting near me back on Earth – some sort of art class that would meet in the park I was seated in back in Delaware…"

"Ah, you were an open Plant back then," he said. She nodded again.

"You?" she asked.

"No, not me," he laughed from behind his mustache. "I was the Number Three North Station Plant for Boston ConEdison. I was cooped up all the time. When I was brought here and found myself outside of my containment vessel for the first time, I took up law…"

Brandywine blinked. "You're a lawyer?" she asked.

He laughed. "There are more Plant Lawyers than you would think – I believe at least five members of my class were Plants. The teachers never knew it – helped out too, when we'd share answers during tests… it got a little busy though when we'd start debating situations in our minds… But anyway…"

Brandywine giggled. "Well, that would explain why a man would be out here in the middle of nowhere in this heat wearing a suit like that!"

He smiled. "I do have to look the part! Speaking of which, do you know the way to Promontory Flats and Sutter's Mesa?"

Brandywine looked around her canvas. "I believe it's out in that direction," She said pointing with a large brush. "It's some two hundred iles or so. The road doesn't turn that way for another ten iles when you'll reach a crossroads that heads that way."

"Much obliged, missy!" he said. He then noticed something about the canvas.

"You know you have a hole on your painting," he noted, pointing at the gap at the top corner.

She snorted as she looked at the bullet hole. "Accidents will happen – I'll fix it after I get back home."

He nodded and tipped his hat again to her then slowly pulled away. He stopped a few yards down the road and looked back at her.

"May I ask, you do seem to be out in the middle of nowhere," he stated. "Have you a ride out when you are done?"

She smiled and pointed across the road, where a motorcycle sat. He nodded then noticed something. There was smoke coming up from the mountain behind the cycle.

"Looks like someone has a nasty fire going on there," he said. Brandywine looked back and smiled.

"Indeed," she replied and waved to him.

He shrugged and continued on.

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Sara sat before the monitor of the communication station. She was busy reading the updates, or at least trying to read them. She was troubled with the way she handled B.D.N. earlier, and news about the judges now being able to read wasn't much comfort to her, even though last week they had only learned to crawl. She decided to punch up the data charts on the Plants in an attempt to figure out just where the Plant unit they had found in the remains of B.D.N.'s hideout was from.

She punched in the serial number they had found on the base unit. It said that the power unit had come from the city of New Orleans, but the Plant that had been in it had left some 100 years prior to the little girl and Philo coming to it. She found no information on what became of the Plant that had been inside the unit. The closest she could come to any information on that person was someone named Red Stick.

"Baton Rouge," Meryl said over her shoulder, making her jump. She had not heard the Insurance Girl enter the room. She looked back and held her heart.

"Sorry," she smiled as if she were Millie. "Geography was one of my strong suits back in school… even though most of it was about a planet we aren't even on…"

Sara tried to put her best face on, but she could hardly muster it. Meryl shook her.

"Hey you, snap out of it! You're supposed to be the strong one here!" she told the officer. "Besides, I think I know what you need."

"Huh?" she asked with a bit of grogginess in her voice. She was then presented with a newspaper at point-blank range.

"Right here," Meryl said as she placed the rag in Sara's lap. She pointed at a large ad that had glaringly huge letters running across it.

"THE 50TH ANNUAL GREATER PROMETORY FALLS BALL" the banner for the ad read. She looked up at Meryl with a confused expression on her face.

"A ball? You want me to play with a ball?"

Meryl pinched her eyes. Sometimes Sara could be JUST like Millie.

"A ball in this case is a dance – a BIG one," she said. "This is the most popular one on this planet! And you need to get out and breath some air, girl!"

Sara looked at the ad again. "Well, it's obvious that I've never been to one before…" she started.

"Exactly – then again, if what you say is true, and you're less than a year old, that's not surprising!" Meryl stepped in front of Sara and held the arms of her chair. "You need a break!"

"Pardon?"

Meryl stood back up. "Don't give me that," she mockingly scolded. "We've all been through the wringer lately, and personally, I'd love to go to that party. You need to get out too, stretch your feet, so to say. Besides, Millie found something that might make you want to go." She grabbed her by the hand and dragged her back to the cabins in the rear.

In a stray cabin behind her own, Millie was rustling in a closet. She looked out when she heard someone enter the room.

"Meryl, this is great!" she exclaimed. "Look at me!"

She had pulled out a gown and was holding it up to her chest. She spun around and giggled.

"Where… where did this come from? Who said you could get into this?" Sara asked as she started to sound official again.

"Lexington did!" Millie said and she handed Sara a piece of paper. It was a print-out from a wall unit each cabin had.

_"Meryl and Millie," _it read._ "I heard you saying that you wished that you could take a break and go to that ball in Promontory Falls. If you'd like to go, you will find gowns and all you need in Cabin #12. Enjoy! PS – take Sara with you – she needs a break!"_ As she looked up from the note, she was presented a blue chiffon dress.

"You'll knock 'em out!" Millie added with a grin. Meryl just looked at her with a smirk on her face.

Sara sighed. She remembered the words of OneO'Five back home. She had asked him if she would 'knock 'em out' when she arrived. He had told her that she'd have more trouble with the men on this planet than with Knives. She pressed a button on the wall.

"Dallas, how far are we from Promontory Falls?" she asked.

"We're almost there – we were going to pass by it on our way to Bedford," he replied from the pilot's seat.

She smiled and looked at the expectant expressions on the Insurance Girl's faces. "Stop there tonight," she said. "We'll be here a day or two."

The girl squealed and jumped around. The rest of the evening was spent trying on the gowns and having fun.

--------------------------------------

B.D.N. had nearly cut the first bar from his cell with his hidden wrist wire. He gave it a final yank and severed the base from the rest – only 10 more to go…

As he sat up and wiped the sweat from his brow, something flashed in front of him. He spotted a waft of smoke from the base of the bar he had just cut, and found it freshly welded to the floor again. Over his shoulder, a piece of paper fell out of a slot in the wall. He picked it up and read it.

_"Can't get out that way,"_ it read. _"Lexington,"_ it was signed. He crunched the paper and crossed his legs and pouted.

"That's not beautiful," he grumbled. He stared at the weld and cursed the Plant that had put it back together on him. He would have stayed that way for the rest of the night, but a pair of feet stepped into his view – a pair of white glowing feet.

He looked up and saw the girl from the Plant in front of him. She was covered in a nightgown-like garment that was nearly as white as her skin. And she was emitting an iridescent shine that made him drop his jaw.

"Flashy… extremely flashy and beautiful," he said in awe of the girl. She smiled.

"I'm old enough to be your grandmother 10 times over," she said. She sat down on the other side of the bars and looked at him.

"What… what are you doing?" B.D.N. asked the staring girl.

"I was lonely" she said. "I figured you were too…"

He sat back then looked away. "Believe me girl we have nothing to talk about."

"Yes we do," she said with a smile. He looked back at her.

"Huh?" he asked.

"Philo," she replied with a simple smile. "After all, you knew him better than any of us, didn't you?"

B.D.N. looked down and grunted. He then started to laugh.

"Yea kid, Philo," he said behind his bars, and on a monitor in Cabin 12. Sara had been alerted that the girl had left the regen unit by Lexington.

"So, she's going to be okay?" Meryl asked.

"That's hard to say," Sara said. "She should not have come out of the regen unit so early. She needed at least a month in there to fully recover… unless she no longer wants to be a Plant or a full Plant that is…"

The girl laughed along with the outlaw. She wiped a tear from her face and looked at the huge man behind the bars.

"You know, you never told me your name," B.D.N. said quietly, almost ashamed to ask.

"I was Delta 174 of Miami, Florida," she said. "Since the locals have seemed to have taken their hometown names, I guess you can call me Miami."

Neon smiled at the glowing girl. "Miami – sweet."

The Tunnel Steamer pulled into the station at midnight. The Insurance Girls and Sara had been busy with their attire for the following night, and Miami and B.D.N. spent the evening just talking. Dallas came back later when the girl had fallen asleep to take her to a cabin. B.D.N. stared at her as he picked her up.

"You take care of that angel, you hear?" he told Dallas. "She's a spectacular waiting to happen."

Dallas nodded and smiled. He then retired her to a private cabin, leaving the outlaw to stare at the floor where she had been that evening. It was amazing just how much he knew of Philo, and she truly wanted to hear it. She had listened intensely as he had told her of his work for him, and the equipment he had created for him. If it hadn't been for that little man… and his… wife…

…he wouldn't have been Brilliance Dynamite Neon… he shuddered. He slowly stood up. A shadow passed over the bars in the cell. He looked up and saw Sara there.

"She is something, isn't she?" Sara asked. B.D.N. nodded.

"Damn straight," he said. "She had a glow I've never seen in anyone… Not sparkly – not flashy… She was incredible…" He sat down on the cot.

Sara sighed. "Look, I want to apologize for earlier. I was out of line."

B.D.N. looked over at her and shook his head. "No you weren't. You were correct. I will take what is due me. Miami - the Angel of Peace… Spectacular…"

oOo

**Next Episode**

_**Have you ever been ashamed of something you did after you did it? **_

Ask Brandywine the Artist...

Have you ever wished you were anyone else but yourself?

Ask Brandywine the Artist...

Were you ever asked to do something you knew was wrong, but fate seemed intended that you do it anyway?

Ask Brandywine the Artist...

Next Episode of TRIGUN: MOON CHILD - Chapter Nine - Belles of the Ball - Part 1 of the Promontory Falls Trilogy

When duty and love don't mix, ask Brandywine the Artist - she'll sing you a sad tune.

All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow

Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0311.17


	11. Belles of the Ball

**Chapter Eight**

TRIGUN:**  
****MOON CHILD****  
**

**- ****The Promontory Falls Trilogy -**

**Part 1**

**Belles of the Ball**

**By R. A. Stott**

Miami sat in the pilot's seat. She slowly turned it from side to side then spun it around once. She found that it had a spring in it, and she was returned in the opposite direction she had turned in. She clutched her knees, her fine white bed clothes falling about her small body. She dropped her head into her lap and began to cry.

It was the third time that night Dallas had to carry her back to her room. She seemed to be restless whenever placed in a bed. Then again, she had spent the better part of the last few years inside a Plant, where lying down was impossible. He went to place her on the bed and found her clutching one of his thumbs – his hands alone nearly wrapped around her once.

"Please," she whispered, "don't put on that thing… not tonight…"

Dallas looked at the girl then at the bed. "Where should I put you then?" he asked.

"I don't know," she whimpered. "Anywhere but there."

Dallas looked around himself. She was so tiny. Even though she was obviously a grown woman, anyone who had seen her would have thought she was only a child. He looked behind himself and found a large chair. He sat down with her in his lap. She snuggled in. He sighed and dozed off as well.

"A touch – that is something Plants can't have often," Sara said to herself when she looked in on the girl and saw Dallas in the chair. She looked back at Meryl and smiled. The Insurance Girls were behind her also looking in.

"There certainly is a size difference," Meryl said cracking a grin. Sara stifled a laugh and closed the door.

B.D.N. had spent the evening pondering the world after the girl had been taken to her room earlier. He had seen her leave her room once, but he thought that she was just going to use the facilities. When he saw Dallas bring her back in a coiled heap he figured otherwise. If she left her room again, he'd offer to talk with her again.

But he must have nodded off, since the next thing he knew, Dallas was bringing her back to the room again.

Now, he had three ladies outside the cell in gowns and dresses. He was more shocked to see that the one was Sara, the lady officer who had easily lifted him off his seat earlier. He just stared wide eyed.

"What are you looking at?" Meryl snapped. He blinked at her and continued to gawk.

"Flashy," was all he said.

"Peachy," Meryl said as she grabbed the inner solid door and slid it shut over the barred door. "The nerve of that guy!"

"I don't know Meryl," Millie smiled, "it sounded like he was giving us a compliment!"

"Uh! I'd rather get fashion tips from Vash the Stampede!" her friend grumbled.

-----------------------------------

The motorcycle turned into the alley behind the hotel. She stood off the seat and looked at her covered canvas. She wasn't going to get much money for a painting with a bullet hole in it. She sighed and removed her stuff from the bike.

"Hey BW," a deep voice said from the back of the hotel. She spun about.

"Bryant!" she exclaimed. "Where did you come from?"

He looked back into the door he was standing in. "I work here, remember?" he said. "How'd your work go today?"

She smiled. "Good and bad," she answered as she removed the cover from the painting. Her technique was pleasing to look at, yet the hole in the upper corner of the frame stood out like a sore thumb.

"Ooh, ouch!" he said coming over to look at it closer. "Can you fix that?"

She shrugged. "We'll see… I need the cash. And I've had worse damage to my paintings," she added with a wry smile. He turned beet-red.

"I said I was sorry," the man said scraping the ground with his foot. "I tripped, okay?"

She wrapped herself around his neck and planted her face into his. "Not to worry – it was only the frame that broke on a $$560 picture – easy fix!"

"Honey, you're too much," he said as they danced in the courtyard. She giggled.

"Ouch!" he yelped. Something under her long jacket had swung around and belted him in the knee. He fell off her and hit the ground as she held her mouth in shock with what she had done. She dropped to his side to help him out.

"Ow, BW! What have you got under that jacket?" he groused while holding his throbbing kneecap. He saw a long rod-like shape under the coat.

"I'm sorry Bryant," she said as she removed the shotgun. He looked at it, then at her as she put it down beside them.

"What the hell is that for?" he asked. She gave him a look back that told him that was a stupid question.

"Come on, Bryant," she said while hauling him up. "I'm a girl out in the middle of nowhere where perverts and thugs are under every bush!" She picked up the gun and patted it. "PROTECTION!"

He smirked and leaned over to kiss her. She dropped the gun and grabbed him around the neck. They rolled in the dust for a bit while passersby's glanced at the two. Finally the sheriff stopped at the end of the entry and cleared his throat.

"Oh, hi Russ," Bryant said from under Brandywine.

The sheriff shook his head. "BW, would you mind getting off my brother?" She looked at Bryant and smiled. She stood up and dusted herself off.

As Bryant collected himself he heard, "Hey dishwasher." He grimaced and turned slowly.

"M - Mr. Burnside!" he gurgled as he saw his boss in the doorway to the hotel. He was shaking his bald head and looking past him at the sheriff.

"Your sink is full son," he said pointing in at the unseen job waiting him. He could certainly hear the clinking of dishes. He sighed and looked back at Brandywine. She winked at him and sent him off with a swat to his tail.

"BW, you sure know how to twist his mind," the sheriff said with a laugh as he stepped up beside her. "How was work today?"

"Eah, so-so," she said as she started to collect her stuff. She looked back to find that the sheriff was holding her gun.

"This is some shotgun, BW," he said. He wiped the back near the hammers with his fingers and sniffed them. "Did you fire this thing off earlier?"

She smiled and continued to collect her supplies. "Just look at the painting," she said gesturing to the hole in the corner. "I had a run-in with some jerk who was shooting at some buzzhawks. I had to let him know I was there by shooting it off into the air. Could you pick up my tackle box, Russ?"

He blinked and looked at the armload she was carrying and the large box that was still on the ground. "Oh, sorry," he said as he lifted it up and followed her across the alley to the small studio she had built in a converted thomas stable. He placed the box down on a table and continued to examine the gun.

"What is this huge box-like thing under the barrels?" he asked.

BW took the weapon and opened a small door on the back of the box and removed a shell. "Magazine," she said. "I call this my Vash Special," she said with a wink. "It used to be my daddy's."

The sheriff shrugged. "It's certainly a big gun for such a little lady," he noted while scratching his head. He then noticed a dress hanging on an open door. "Ah, you're going to the Ball tonight?"

She sighed. "Bryant insisted. You know how much I hate these socials. Are you bringing Delia?"

He laughed. "Do I have a choice? Anything to get away from the kids… besides, as sheriff, I have to come – I just get to get dressed up for it!"

Brandywine laughed. "We all have our crosses to bear," she said. He laughed as well as he headed for the door.

"Now you're getting religious on me, ea?" he asked. "You'll have to bring that idea up with the Pastor tonight."

She watched the sheriff leave to continue his morning walk. She then noticed a cat sitting on her bike. It was staring at her.

"What are you looking at?" she snarled. The cat continued to stare, its eyes wide and dark – odd seeing how bright it was out.

She could have sworn that she heard the word 'truth' spoken by someone.

For some reason, some of her words from earlier that day flashed back at her in her mind.

"_Besides, just the fact that you're human means that you'll be dead soon anyway."_

She looked over at the door where she had watched Bryant enter – she could even catch glimpses of him working in the kitchen. She touched her lips where he had kissed her. She felt a wave of guilt sweep through her.

"Not all humans… please not all humans," she whispered.

"Oh yes," came a reply. "All humans – even your boyfriend and his brother."

She leaned against the door jam and rested her head. Her inner voice was sometimes horrible. "Damn you," she cursed.

"Weren't supposed to fall in love with a human, ea?"

That voice wasn't hers. She looked around and only saw the cat, which was now washing a hind leg.

"So where are you heading for?" she now heard. The voice was coming from a door at the end of the alley. Odd that she had never seen it opened before. A small woman in a business suit, a tall woman in another business suit, and another woman in a strange suit emblazoned with SSF patches stepped out.

"Promontory Falls is a sizable town – it's actually a city – there's a Bernardelli office here," Meryl said as she closed the door behind them. "I can get a direct line back to the home office for updates."

"Umm, I wonder if daddy is in?" Millie cheerfully asked, making Meryl drop her head.

"Oh yea, your father is the owner… I remember that now…" Meryl treaded out towards the street. She looked back when she noticed she was alone.

Millie was examining the motorcycle. "Did I tell you about the bike Nicholas purchased in 1906? He could hardly wait to get his hands on one when they finally arrived. He called it his Harley…" She laughed and continued on.

Sara looked at the cat that had sacked out on the seat. It looked up at her then looked over to one side. Sara followed its glance to see the girl in the doorway who was looking at her uniform.

Sara smiled and said "Hello" with her mind. The girl stood up in shock.

"You're… you are… You're a Plant as well!" Brandywine said in her mind.

"Nice to meet you," Sara said as she continued on. Meryl saw the look on her face then saw the woman back in the alley.

"Something up?" she asked the officer.

Sara glanced back. "Just said hello to a friend." They continued on. Brandywine stepped back into her home and sat down.

"Damn," she said to herself. "What is she doing here?" She brought up her power a bit and felt around her.

There – down below… following the steps behind that door out there… something below… a Plant… and two Plantoids… the one felt familiar. She withdrew back into herself. This was getting dangerous.

_Bryant… why Bryant? Why Ross? I don't want to kill them… I don't want to kill anyone in this town – they're… my friends… they let me be what I want to be. I wasn't ejected like the other Plants…  
_  
"Because you're a Gung-Ho Gun, that's why."

She sighed. "I know what I am," she replied to the transmission she had just received from Sandusky. "But that doesn't mean I have to like it. Don't you have any human friends?"

"I did – once," he replied. "They made a fine stew."

She slammed her mind shut.

The Insurance Office was busy when the ladies found it. A Sand Steamer had exploded a day or two before, and the personnel were running about trying to get up to date on the claims being processed. When Meryl informed them of the blast that took out the Bad Lads base in the mountains to the south, the local manager dropped his head on his desk and cried.

"Oh my!" Millie exclaimed. "Do you think we made him sad?" Meryl scowled at her.

The sheriff ran up to the door to the office and yanked it open. He looked about and found Sara looking back at him. He gasped.

"My god, it's true!" he said out of breath. "An SSF Officer!"

Sara reached out to shake his trembling hand. She smiled. "Officer Sara Montgomery of the SEEDS Security Force, sheriff - I wanted to see you after I was done here anyway – thank you for coming."

He looked at the hand that held his. It was small and soft – not what he had expected in an SSF. He stood upright and gave a quick salute, much to Meryl and Millie's surprise. "And what do we have the pleasure of your visit, Officer Montgomery?" he asked.

"Business and pleasure, sheriff," she said. "I have a prisoner for you to hold in lieu of transfer while I continue an ongoing investigation, and we stopped by here because my friends tell me that you have a shin-dig going down tonight…"

"Huh?" he said. "Oh, you mean the Ball? Why of course! It is our pleasure to have someone like you at our Ball tonight! And where is the prisoner?"

"Down in our Steamer," Millie said getting a slight nudge by Meryl and a confused look from the office workers.

"I'll explain when we go get him," Sara said with a slight glare towards Millie. "He's both a prisoner and a witness to our mission, so we must have him guarded at all times."

The sheriff rubbed his neck. "He sounds important – who is this person?"

Meryl took the sheriff aside and whispered in his ear, "I know you're not going to believe this, but she's got Brilliance Dynamite Neon incarcerated."

Russ looked at the petite woman, then at Sara. He started to break up laughing until he saw the look on the officer's face.

"Y-you're not kidding, are you?" he said. She slowly swung her head back and forth. He swallowed.

"He was apprehended after someone destroyed his base of operations yesterday," Sara noted. The office workers drew silent as she spoke.

"Hey, maybe that was all that smoke we saw south of here yesterday," someone said.

"Don't say that! He probably had insurance with us!" another said.

"Great, at this rate, with the damage that Vash the Stampede is doing, Bernardelli Insurance will be broke in a month!"

Meryl exploded on that poor soul.

-----------------------------------

Brandywine attempted to fix the hole in the canvas using a piece of linen covered in fresh gesso and a pallet knife. She tried to match up the threads, but found that the material's weave did not match the fabric of the full canvas. She pulled the new piece out and cleaned up the hole before it dried. She decided that she'd try it again later – she just was not in the mood. She wandered out into the alley and stood in the door of the hotel's kitchen. Bryant was now busy with cleaning vegetables for the evening's Pre-Ball Banquette. He saw her standing there and winked. She waved at him and just stared.

_Why must I kill him? Why must I kill any of them? Humans aren't all bad, like those I killed yesterday… So why must I kill the man… I love?  
_  
"Don't be foolish child," the voice of Horloge echoed in her mind. "How could you love him, a useless underdeveloped human? You are a superior species that should be destined to rule the universe, let alone dominate over these weak creatures!"

She turned and looked out the door.

_I don't want to kill these people – they are my friends.  
_  
"Nonsense! Just look at them! If this Bryant found out you were a Plant, what do you think he'd do? He'd drop you like a dead thomas!"

She looked back over her shoulder at the man she loved.  
_  
No he wouldn't – you're lying.  
_  
"Child, there are many things in this world that you must believe is true. First of all is that all humans are evil."  
_  
No! No!!  
_  
"Second, all humans must be destroyed."  
_  
NO! NO! NO!  
_  
**"DO NOT DENY OUR DESTINY!!"** a new voice blasted in her mind. She held onto the door jam trying to hold her own and not let Bryant know she was under attack. She pushed hard, and finally slammed her mind's door shut.

D'two sat back in his sphere's chair. "She closed her mind to me."

"Master," the mind of Horloge appeared, "I beg for your forgiveness… I have no idea just what has got into her mind to have done that."

D'two calmly sent a fiery dagger through the minds of Horloge and Sandusky, making them collapse in agony. He then pondered a sword he produced from thin air.

"You two are totally clueless, aren't you?" he said. "Of course she would be reluctant to kill her 'friends'. Telling her that you ATE yours was a bit futile as well. You forget that she was one of the first free-Plants on this planet. She survived her release and lived alongside these humans longer than nearly all of us."

"Why is she turning away from us?" Horloge complained. "She was all for blowing away the humans when we gave her the gun…"

She got another hot poker to the brain for that.

"She's an artist," D'two said. "She has a decidedly independent spirit." He started to carve an image on the inside of the sphere with the sword.

Brandywine had to step outside to avoid Bryant seeing her crying. She managed to shield the minds of those in the kitchen so that they wouldn't hear her either. She found some barrels and slid down the side of the building to hide behind them. She clutched her legs and rocked back and forth. The pain she was feeling pounded her soul as she wept.

"Down here sheriff," she heard. She quickly scurried deeper behind the barrels and peeked around them. The ladies had returned, and Russ was with them. The SSF officer with them pulled a small box from her belt and pointed it at the door at the end of the alley. It popped open allowing them to enter.

Brandywine crept over to the door and peeked in. Steps lead down. She wondered if she should go down but felt that she should actually hide.

She entered her studio and sat on a stool staring at the door. With windows scrounged from an old SEEDS ship, she was shielded by dark glass to observers, though when she saw who came out of the door next, she instinctively dropped to the floor and peeked over the edge of the sills at the huge man she thought she had killed.

"Protective custody?" B.D.N. grumbled. "What for?"

"Don't be fooled, Neon," the sheriff said while holding onto the handcuffs that were holding the bandit's hands behind him. "You're still being placed under arrest for your many crimes." He looked back at Meryl and laughed. "I guess you win the bounty money, little lady!

"No I don't," she groused. "Just like Vash, Bernardelli is the backer of the bounty on B.D… If I claim it, I get $$25."

"Daddy doesn't have much of an incentive plan, does he?" Millie chuckled. Meryl almost had steam pouring from her ears.

Sheriff Ross looked at Sara. "I guess you couldn't take it for them," he suggested.

She shook her head. "Officer of the law – it's my duty, so no."

"I'm not an officer of the law," Dallas noted. Brandywine looked up at the man who made Neon look small. And he was a Plant too!

The group headed out towards the street again with their prisoner. The ladies were all over Dallas for even suggesting the bounty be paid to him. Brandywine exited her studio and watched from behind.

"What the heck was all that about?" she heard Bryant say from the door of the hotel's kitchen. She looked at him, then at the still opened door behind herself.

The cat was sitting there, almost guarding it. "Meow," it said.

"Did I hear Russ out here?" he asked her. She didn't answer - she just walked over to the door and looked down the stairs. The cat scurried down them.

"Hey," she heard as she started down the stairs. "Where do you think you're going?" She looked back at Bryant and sighed.

"I need to get some answers," she said, and followed the cat into the dark.

Bryant looked back at the hotel. He pulled off his apron and chased after her.

The stairs seemed to run for iles to the two of them. Bryant had finally caught up with Brandywine just as she made it to the base of the steps. She had come to a halt as she had found the cat sitting at the bottom, its yellow-green reflective eyes glowing in the dark pit they had entered. Something down there was chugging away. Machinery of some sort, it was hard to tell. But a light could be seen around a corner of this landing the stairs had come to.

"Meow," the cat said again, and it ran towards the light.

Brandywine was about to follow when she felt her hand get grasped. Bryant nodded to her and started to follow the cat. She was so shocked to see him there that she at first held back, but decided that if he was there, she'd follow.

They walked around the curved tube-like path that the light was streaming from. Far ahead, the cat could be seen looking back at them as if waiting. Now a light was beaming right up the tunnel at them obscuring the source. The cat began to run again and vanished into this luminance.

Sara had hold of one arm - the sheriff had a grip on the other. B.D.N. looked like he was the wishbone that these two were about to break. The people in the city stood in awe as the procession headed for the jail.

As they passed Market Street, a thin man with a scrawny mustache watched the group walk by. He didn't say a thing, though his face was all in shock. His boss' rival was being taken to jail. He quickly ran towards the satellite office.

Just outside the jail, another man also saw the group. This man looked a bit grimy and weather-beaten – almost out of place in a small city like this one – but he too stood in shock at the sight before him.

"The boss!" he whispered. "They found the boss! I've gotta tell the others!" He was off like a shot.

"Aww, but sheriff!" a deputy complained. "Mildred is gonna kill me!"

"I'm sorry Blake," Russ said as he locked the cell door. "We need a few more men here tonight before we can transfer Neon to the Federal Lock-Up in the morning.

"But you already had Cavendish and Reynolds here tonight!" the chunky Blake continued to complain. "Mildred has been waiting for months for this Ball tonight!"

The sheriff sighed. "Hey, if I could send you in my place, I would. But I must attend as sheriff of this city."

"Hey, if you need to go, I can stay and guard," Dallas offered. The sheriff and Blake looked up at the massive man in the corner. Russ glanced at Blake and back at Dallas.

"I'd have to deputize you," he said. "You wouldn't be able to collect that bounty on Neon."

Dallas looked at the ladies. "I probably wouldn't get it anyway," he mumbled.

Blake jumped. "Woo hoo! Boy, you're a blessing!" he yelped before Russ could settle him.

"Son, have you ever held a gun before?" he asked the large man.

"Don't need a gun," he said as he held out the palm of his hand. A glow shimmered - then what looked like a glass wall wobbled into existence. "I'm freshly out of a containment unit – I have a good deal of reserve energy built up!"

"What the hell are…" Blake started, but Russ' hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Good son," the sheriff said. "You've got the job – a 27 hour commission."

Bryant and Brandywine stepped out of the smaller tunnel and into a huge one. The light and sounds were coming from a large machine on wheels that sounded like a Steamer.

"BW, what is this?" Bryant asked. He placed his hand on the cold metal of the machine. He felt the throb of the motors aboard. "It's amazing – it looks like a piece of lost technology!"

"It's much more than that," a voice said from behind the source of the light. A small woman appeared. She was holding the cat in her arms, slowly stroking its head. Bryant looked at her closely. Except for her size, she could have been Brandywine's sister! Her hair was just as short as hers, though a bit more mussed up. But her face and eyes… they were Brandywine's!

"What is this?" he asked.

She looked at Brandywine. "So, this is your love?" she asked her fellow Plant.

Brandywine looked at Bryant, who was locked against the hull of the ship, stilled by whatever power the small woman had cast on him. She gasped and looked back at her, a bit incredulous that she would hold him like that.

"You killed my love, you know."

Brandywine stood back. She had seen B.D.N. exit this place, so this had to be…

"Yes, I am her… the Plant you shot the other day with your gun. The people here rescued me, but they could not save my Philo."

"I was… I was… I was on a mission… I'm…"

The girl closed her eyes. "Do not fear. I know what you were doing. I know what you did, and who made you do it. Almost all children of Angel 5 know what they are doing, and what they made you do."

Brandywine looked at her confused. "What?"

"Please child," she said. "Before the other day, did you have any feelings that you wanted to kill all humans?"

Brandywine looked at her Bryant. "No," she said with a tear rolling down her cheek. "No I didn't… As a matter of fact… I thought I was human for a bit there…"

"Exactly," Miami noted. "You were deceived by D'two and his people. You are not a Gung-Ho Gun, nor shall you ever want to be. That is why I do not blame you for the other day." She looked over at the statue of the human beside her. "You will have to guard him," she said. "If you go against the Devil of Detroit, he will subject you and your love to the worst torment possible. And it will not be quick. He enjoys slow and painful torture."

She turned and walked away. "I will do what I can, but you must be the vigilant one. You may wish to ask the officer for assistance. I'm sure she'll want to help." She and the cat then vanished back into the light.

Brandywine looked at Bryant and held her hand to his head.

"Honey, we have to get out of here, and I don't want you to remember a thing." She kissed him and then ran for the tunnel again with him following in a stupefied haze.

"Did I hear Russ out here?" Bryant asked his lady as he looked down the alley towards the street. She draped herself across his shoulders and held him tight. He didn't know what was going on, but he held her anyway.

-----------------------------------

It was around four in the afternoon when the ladies returned to the Steamer to start changing. Dallas had remained at the sheriff's office on guard duty.

"I can hardly wait," Meryl exclaimed as she stepped onto the deck. "We're going to knock them out tonight with these gowns!"

"Still, I wonder why Mr. Lexington had these on board the Steamer?" Millie pondered as she took her jacket off and prepared to take a bath.

"It is stock stored from the caboose," Sara told them as she peeled off her uniform. "Remember, this Steamer is used by the Plants to travel around from town to town. A change of attire would be necessary. The closet in cabin 12 just so happens to be where the transfer between the main ship is to the caboose. Everything is stored on transduction plates as digital compressed items. When the plate is installed in a receiver, which the closet happens to be, the unit releases the stored item. Mind you, this works only on inanimate objects, which is why this wasn't the system used to store the Sleepers on Project SEEDS."

Sara looked over her shoulder at the totally perplexed expressions she was getting from the girls and shrugged. It was time to get ready for the party anyway.

"Meryl, Sara… come look at this," they heard Millie whisper.

They found Millie looking in on Miami. In the room they found her dressed in a pink frilly dress, sound asleep in the big chair with the cat in her lap, looking even more like a small child than before.

"I guess she wants to come to the Ball as well," Millie said with a giggle.

Six O'clock arrived. Meryl searched the Steamer for Sara. She had dressed in her cabin, and when the Insurance Girl had gone to check to see if she was ready, she had found the room empty. She had started her search in the front of the ship and found nothing. She then had been working her way back to the rear. Finally she heard Sara giggling in the engine room - Sara giggling? She peered in through the open hatch.

Sara was fully dressed up, her hair up in a tight swirl on the back of her head, and the blue chiffon dress that Millie had chosen for her swinging around her gracefully. She seemed to be dancing and laughing… but why in the engine room of all places…

Meryl looked up as a thought hit her. And indeed it did seem true. Lexington was looking down on Sara from the bulb of the Micro Plant. And even through the distortion of the reaction process, she could tell he was enjoying the presentation being given by the young officer.

Officer – shoot – she didn't look like any officer… she looked like she was going to be the Belle of the Ball. Meryl leaned against the hatch way and smiled.

Sara placed her hand on the bulb and looked up at Lexington. "I'm sorry you couldn't be my escort Lexington," she said to the man behind the glass. "I would have loved that."

The Plant placed his hand on his side of the bulb and smiled at her. Meryl could have sworn that he spoke to Sara. But as he did, Meryl noticed Sara draw her hand back and place it on her chest. She bowed her head and looked at the ground. She thought she saw her blushing.

"…love you…" suddenly rang through her mind. Meryl looked hard at Lexington, then stepped back so he didn't see her. His slip of control of his mind telepathy had not been meant for her, and this was no time to be snooping. But when she looked back into the room, she saw Sara with her hand on the glass again.

This time though… she was crying.

Meryl quietly slipped back towards the forward cabins. She was greeted in the hallway by Millie. She was wearing a pale green and white dress, and had her hair up in a ponytail which was crowned in a jeweled band. She looked behind Meryl at the engine room hatchway.

"It's kind of private back there right now," the smaller woman noted as she dragged her large friend forwards.

Miami stood at the doorway to the parlor. The cat was at her feet rubbing up against her hidden legs. She was holding up a large red ribbon.

"Could you help me with this?" she asked Meryl as she showed her that it was suppose to be a ribbon belt for her dress.

As they waited for the officer, Meryl started to tie the ribbon in a large bow.

"This will be an exciting night," Miami noted as Meryl worked. "There should be great surprises."

Meryl looked at the girl's face from behind her. The way she said that was sad and lonely. She then noticed the cat continuing to rub up against her.

"Surprises indeed," Sara said as she entered the room. She wiped her face with a handkerchief and adjusted her gown in a mirror.

"Are we ready ladies?" she asked as she pulled out a purse. She opened it up and looked over at a set of guns that were sitting on top of one another. She took the black-metal gun, loaded the chamber and placed it in.

"Gee Miss Sara, are you expecting trouble?" Millie asked. She then noticed Meryl quietly placing six of her Derringers into her own clutch purse.

"Better safe than sorry, right Sara?" she said with a wink. She handed Millie a few to put into her own purse.

Brandywine looked over her gown. It was a hand-me-down that Bryant's mother had given her for the Ball – a two toned cream white with salmon-orange trim and a frilly lace front. Just old fashioned enough to make it stand out, but still quite presentable for a Ball like this. Besides, the men were going to be wearing monkey suits of their own, why not the women as well?

She had spent the afternoon slowly cleaning up her act. Mr. Burnside had allowed her the use of one of his hotel room's showers to scrub down and make herself presentable, though she decided to use her studio as the place to work on her gown. She fashioned a series of natural items - twigs and sprigs of wild berries and flowers - into a hair braid, and after taming the rat's nest she called her hair with some heavy use of conditioners, decked out her platinum locks with the organic crown. She turned a spare ship's window unit she had around to use as a mirror and examined herself.

"Damn, girl…" she said. "There is a woman under all that paint!" She smiled and forgot the angst from earlier as she adjusted her dress and crown and slipped on a pair of long dress gloves. As she slipped the last finger into place, her eyes met the eyes of her reflection. She locked onto the green pupils that were staring back at her.

_"…the fact that you're human means that you'll be dead soon anyway…" _

"…you're a Gung-Ho Gun, that's why…"

"…I was on a mission…"

"…You're not a Gung-Ho Gun… nor will you ever be one…"

"…I thought I was human there for a bit… I was human… I was human… I was human…"

She huffed and angled the tiara of berries a bit to one side.

"I am human," she snorted with a wry smile. "And no one is going to tell me otherwise."

"So be it," rumbled through her mind. She looked about expecting someone to be in the room with her. A metallic thud to one side of the room made her jump. She looked over to find that the shotgun had fallen to the floor.

She pondered over the weapon. That was no idle threat she had just received. The voice of D'two always was cold and angry. She wondered if she should take a gun of some sort – but the shotgun was much too large and obvious. She rifled through a drawer to an old dresser she had once recovered from the town's dump. There, she pulled a Frank Marlon Special. She looked at it with trepidation, not knowing if it could even fire, let alone where she'd hide it since it wasn't much smaller than the shotgun.

"This isn't going to work," she grumbled as she clanked the gun back into the drawer. It bounced off some old tools, parting some to reveal a small muzzle. She pulled it out and found an old pistol – snub nosed and loaded. She checked that all the components worked before stuffing it into the back of her belt. A half dress that covered over the top of her pleated gown hid it well. She sighed.

"I'll be damned if he's going to stop me," she steamed. She straightened her crown and headed out.

-----------------------------------

There was a shift in the wind. The tall man stood in the breeze atop a bluff overlooking Promontory Falls. He was wrapped in a brown muslin cloth which went up his left leg, across his body leaving his right arm free - and like Sandusky when shooting, the wrap left only one eye visible. He raised his long thin arm and pointed it at the heart of the city below. In his mind's eye, a set of crosshairs danced about then settled in a large circle at the end of his finger. It then shrunk as the image expanded to show him the alley beside the hotel. The red targeting eye positioned itself on a young woman in a Ball gown as she stepped out from behind a motorcycle.

"A very interesting position friend," a voice said from behind him on the mesa. "Seeing that you have no weapon in your hand, I would assume that you're simply stretching that arm of yours."

The end of the body cloth flapped loudly as the wind increased. The man turned slightly to see just who decided to interfere with his calculations. He saw no one.

"Berlin, I have ein visitor on zie mesa," he said as he resumed his plotting. He ducked as a stone zipped by his head.

A hand snatched the stray rock and crushed it. "Continue your vork Frankfort… I vill find zis intruder."

"Danka bruder," he said as he returned to his search. The target he was on before was now gone. He started again with his hunting.

"Oh, you won't find me anywhere up there boys," the voice chided. "But I will be in town getting some grub – maybe even seeing my lady and going to the Ball – don't mess things up for me, okay? Or I'll have to do the same to you." The thought transmission ended with Berlin scampering about the mesa looking for the voice's location.

"It zeemed to be comink from der Flats, bruder." Berlin looked back and saw that he was still stiff like a stick pondering the city below.

"Jawohl," Frankfort said. "Keep your defenses up, bruder. Zis might be a problem, but I vill carry our mission through…"

A small car stopped by the alley in Frankfort's scope, and a lone man got out. The driver waved to him and drove off. He watched as the man vanished behind the feed store that blocked the other side of the alley to his view.

The man stepped around the motorcycle and brushed its chrome with his hand. He looked into the artist's coop and gave a small laugh. He then stepped over to the knob-less door and tapped on it – shave and a hair cut – it slid open.

"Two bits," he said to himself as he walked through the doorway.

Lexington was resting in his unit. He wouldn't be needed tonight, and even though the power feed was refreshing, he wasn't completely tuned to it quite yet – plus communicating earlier took more power than he had expected. He crossed his arms and thought of Sara.

Movement… There was movement in the engine room. He lowered the yellow haze slightly to see out of his bulb. There, at the work bench, stood a tall thin man. He seemed to be working on his arm with some tools.

"HIM!" blasted through his mind as Vash looked back at the Plant and smiled.

"It looks like it's going to be a rough night tonight," the legendary gunman said. "It's good to see you again, Lexington. I see that you're helping our visitor. Is it true she's from the Fifth Moon?"

Lexington nodded.

Vash finished inserting the firing pin and re-strapped the arm coverings. He flexed his hand and looked back at the Plant.

"Hey, do you still have all those clothes in cabin 12?" he asked. Lexington nodded again.

"Great! Mind if I borrow a suit? I don't have anything to wear to the Ball. Besides, Meryl would knock me a new lump on my head if I showed up in this," he said as he pointed at his basic shirt and pants. He walked out of the room singing _"I'm being followed by a Moon Shadow."_

"AWWK! THERE'S NOTHING HERE BUT GOWNS!" he yelped from the cabin. Lexington rolled his eyes and swapped storage units.

"Oh… thanks," Vash said to the wall communicator as he was looking at a dress. "I really need some donuts…"

oOo

**NEXT EPISODE**

_**Rain **_

As rare as a cool day in the deserts of Gunsmoke

Rain

It cleans the air and scrubs the soul when parched

Rain

Promontory Falls is about to see its first rain in years - and possibly its last

Rain

Sometimes, it comes down red.

Next Episode of TRIGUN: MOON CHILD - Chapter Nine - Storm Clouds - Part 2 of the Promontory Falls Trilogy

Rain shall fall.

Moon Shadow ©1971 Cat Stevens

Mr. Burnside ©2003 S. Nordwall – Used with permission

All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow

Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0311.18


	12. Storm Clouds

**Chapter Nine**

TRIGUN:**  
****MOON CHILD**

**- The Promontory Falls Trilogy -**

Part 2

**Storm Clouds**

**By R. A. Stott**

Frankfort scanned the city from his vantage point. His acquisition had vanished. He switched to a more strenuous scanning technique that allowed him to see through some walls and structures. The target was obviously moving towards the Ball, so he concentrated in and around the Civic Center.

Brandywine had shocked everyone when she walked into the hotel. Bryant was slack-jawed, as was many of the hotel's crew who knew her. She didn't look the same as she had. She had always avoided the Balls before, so this was the first time anyone had seen her in a dress, let alone a gown.

"BW… wow… oh god wow…" was all Bryant said. His mother turned about in her chair at the table she was seated at and held her breath.

"Brandywine, dear," she exclaimed. "I wished I had made that gown look so beautiful when I wore it. Come – come, show us!"

Brandywine smiled and blushed. She spun around once for them, causing many of the others in the room to whistle and cheer. A stern look from Bryant silenced the more boisterous in the crowd. He held out his hand as he showed her to their table for the pre-Ball dinner.

"Spectacular," Bryant said as he kissed her on the cheek. "Mother is right, you are going to be the Belle of the Ball, I'm sure!"

"And I love that crown you have," his mother said. "Where did you get that?"

"I made it," Brandywine noted. "The advantages of being artistic, I guess."

"Well, I thought I heard a commotion in here," Russ said as he entered the dining room with a lady dressed in maroon and pink. She took one look at Brandywine and nearly fell down.

"Branday," she exclaimed in a strange accent. "Branday dahlin' is thot you?"

Everyone at the table looked at her as if she were a total stranger. In unison they glanced at Russ. All he could do is shrug.

"Don't ask me…" he said as he tried to stretch the collar of his dress uniform. "She's been talking like this ever since we left the house." Delia giggled.

"Wha Russell dear, you know I've got to play the part of a southern debutant if Ah intend on winnin' Belle of he Bawl," she said in possibly the worst Dixie accent possible.

"What?" Brandywine yelped, thinking she would have to degrade herself in the same manner for some reason. She felt a hand touch her. She looked at Bryant, who was shaking his head 'no' and smiling.

"Belle of the Ball is ceremonial only," he whispered, "and isn't judged by the way you act anyway. They take your picture when you arrive at the ball, and the judges work from those. You don't even need to do that if you don't want to."

Brandywine sighed and smiled back at him.

"Ed Burnside?"

The owner of the hotel was working as matre'd when four ladies entered the dining room. The one who had spoken his name seemed famil…

"My god, Millie Saverem!" he blurted. He quickly covered his mouth and looked about as if he had just let an enormous secret out.

"Hey," Meryl said as she cocked her head at the man behind the podium, "how did you know THAT name?"

"Oh, I know Mr. Burnside," Millie smiled. "He was the manager of the PX back at Fort Supply!" Meryl looked at her – she had missed the point as usual.

"Millie," she whispered, "that was over four hundred years ago!"

"Really?" she asked with her usual charm. "Gee, he doesn't look a day over thirty-five!"

Sara smirked and reached out her hand to the man. "You're part of the observers, aren't you?" she asked.

"Yes, yes…" he said a bit nervous. "Sorry, I shouldn't have blurted that out just then… I should be used to these time traveling events – we do enough of them ourselves… It is good to see you well, Mrs. Saverem."

Meryl waved her hand and laughed. "Oh, she's just Miss Thompson, not…" She stopped when Millie held her hand up for Meryl to see. The wedding ring was still on her hand. She giggled.

"For Bernardelli, I'm Millie Thompson – for Mr. Burnside, I'm Millie Saverem."

"That's sweet," Miami said. Burnside looked down on the even smaller woman who had just spoken.

"Ah, you're a new one, aren't you?" he asked as he looked at his papers before him. "Ah yes… Delta 174 – Have you taken the name of Miami?"

She nodded, a touch surprised that this stranger would know this. He wasn't a Plant, and she had not sensed him touching her mind… for that matter, she didn't sense him at all…

"Very well," he said. "Your party has been given a special room - If you would follow me, please?" He entered the main dining area and led them towards a room to the side. As they walked through the room, all eyes befell them.

"I feel like I'm being put on display in a store window!" Meryl grimaced.

"You wanted to come," Sara reminded her.

Meryl laughed to herself. "Well, at least we can draw attention to ourselves – I guess that's a compliment in itself."

Sara saw the sheriff at the table in the rear. He raised his glass to her and she nodded back.

"Who is that, Russell?" his wife asked, having been convinced to drop the fake accent.

"That, my dear, is the SSF officer I told you about," he said with a laugh. He saw the expression his wife was giving him and he cleared his throat. "Really, she is."

"Humph!" Delia snorted. "Blue is so last year!"

Sara also noted the woman seated across from the sheriff – it was the girl she had seen earlier in the alleyway. She nodded to her as well as she entered the next room.

Brandywine looked down from her gaze at the officer to the eyes of the small woman who was bringing up the rear. Miami smiled and gestured towards Sara.

"I will talk with her soon, ma'am," Brandywine sent to her telepathically. Miami gave her a chibi smile and entered the room.

The ladies found that they had been given a private dining room, complete with a huge table. Place cards had been set to where they should seat, though it left a great deal of room to sit at. Sara looked back at Burnside with a puzzled expression.

"We were expected?" she asked. He nodded.

"I had not known that Mrs. Saverem would be with you, but yes, I was told you would come."

"Are we expecting company?" Meryl asked as she waved her hand over the massive table before them.

Burnside cleared his throat. "All I am allowed to say is yes. Please be patient, and enjoy our appetizers. Your guests will be with you shortly. If you will pardon me, I must make a quick errand. Excuse me." He whispered instructions to a waiter then left in a hurry.

Sara looked over at Millie. "You know this man – are we safe?"

Millie shrugged. "He always paid good money for my eggs. He said I was the only one around who would check them before bringing them in. I was his good egg!"

Meryl sighed. "Roughly translated, I would say yes." She pulled out her chair and attempted to sit down. The Ball gown was being a bit of a problem, as she wasn't used to all the fabric around her feet. She nearly fell into the chair.

"Well, that was graceful," she grumbled as she rubbed her tail end. "Now I'm glad we're back in this room!"

----------------------------------------

"Hummm… vas have ve here?" Frankfort said as he watched a man run from the hotel. He headed towards the church a block or so away. He had failed to spot his intended target where he had searched before, so he brought his view back to the hotel, just in case it had not left there yet. He had seen many people walking about and a few vehicles moved through his mind's spy-scope, but not his intended target. He was surprised at the number of high-energy readings he was getting. The car he had seen earlier had returned with another man on board. It had pulled into the alleyway, so he had time to set his feel on them. The driver was a full-blown Plantoid, but the passenger felt strange – as if he too might be a Plant, but his energy signature was being masked somehow. The third man arrived and had walked them both back into the alley. From there something else blocked his view, and the signals were lost.

"Must be heavy in iron in zat area," he said to himself. He then was blinded by a flash of light and a rumble. He shook his head, breaking his concentration and looked up. The night sky was clouded over, and the light from the four Plants below reflected off clouds that were rolling in.

"Typical," he snorted. "Of all da nights – ve don't zee rain for 2 years – tonight, ve get rain…" A large drop splattered across his long pointed nose. It hissed as it steamed away.

"I DON'T NEED RAIN!" he shouted as he pointed his fingers at the clouds. They split in half at the gesture. This was followed by a clap of thunder.

"Shooting at the heavens bruder?" Berlin asked as he watched the shifting clouds his brother had parted. Frankfort drew his eye to a slit.

The rings swirled and centered at the tip of his finger, then drew tight on a small spot of light high above the ground.

"Ve have visitors," he said. "I don't like beink looked down on like ratz in a maze! Bang!"

Sara looked up.

Brandywine felt it too.

Lexington smiled at his two new visitors – the one made his skin crawl – Then he too felt the shock – reaction – destruction – that had just occurred in the sky above. He shielded the three in cabin 12 from the wave of energy, though one of them – Vash - seemed to already know.

The small ship scattered across the upper atmosphere of the planet. Its pilot seemed shocked that her ship had simply fallen apart as it had. She twisted around in her space suit to look at the flotsam she was drifting in and prayed for a rescue before that unit behind her…

The shockwave of the blast that followed rumbled across the planet, though it was muffled by the clouds over Promontory Falls, nor did they see the star pattern the explosion made. But it did do one thing the Ball organizers did not want to see. The light drizzle that they expected was replaced for a brief time by a monsoon of rain that had been shocked out of the upper clouds by the force of the wave of energy released.

Millie cocked her ear. "Wow, listen to it rain out there!"

Meryl had finally adjusted herself in her seat. "Rain? We don't get rain around here often! Of all the nights for it to rain!"

High on the mesa, Frankfort cursed his aim.

"Dummkopf!" he muttered as the rain pelted them.

"Don't vorry," Berlin noted as he patted him on the shoulder. "It sped up ze rain – it vill be out of here quicker dis vay."

Frankfort continued to grumble to himself. He stopped when something new caught his attention.

"Aw man, who asked for the damn shower?"

"No prob man, it just means that everyone will be inside the Civic Center quicker, and we'll be able to get the boss easier."

"Yea, but this water is making my suit squeak!"

The brothers looked over the edge of the mesa below. There were a dozen or so men in odd looking suits gathered in a group on another outcropping of rock. Their wardrobe were ringed in colorful tubes.

"Zat is de Bad Lads… or vat is left of dem,' Berlin said. "Should ve finish dem off?"

Frankfort shook his head. "Nein," he said. "A jail break iz just vat ve might need about now…"

Berlin held his palm up and looked to the sky. "Zee? I told you zat it vould move along quicker ven you pushed it!" The rain had slowed to a trickle.

In the city of dirt roads, the lack of rain for so long, and the rush it had come left little mud to worry about, but the surface of the rock-hard soil was now as slick as ice, if any had ever seen ice.

"Of all the time for this to happen," a rotund man said as he entered the hotel's dining room. "There's got to be six inches of water in my car!"

"Well, that's what happens when you leave the top down during a storm!" the tall man behind him laughed. His walking stick thunked on the floor, as did the man's behind him.

The round man shrugged and looked at the confused man behind the podium. "We are here with the Montgomery Party," he said. The young man nodded and had them follow.

Brandywine saw the bowler hat. She smiled and waved to the man who at first didn't recognize the person at the table – until he noticed that she was a Plant.

"Ah, the artist!" he exclaimed as he came over and took her hands and kissed them. "My dear, you look splendid!"

"Why thank you Mr. Boston," she said. "And you look very dapper, as does your two friends with you." She noticed that the one wearing the small dark sun glasses was acting a bit hot under the collar. He was giving her a goofy wave. The other one gave him a shot to the ribs with his elbow as he put his own pair of glasses on.

"Clients," he said as he gestured towards them and removed his hat.

"Honey, who is this?" Bryant asked a bit worried that there might be someone -OLDER - in his lady's life. She smiled at him and winked.

"This is Mr. Boston – he's a lawyer who I met yesterday while I was painting," she said as she took his hand to settle his nerves. "And your friends?" she asked turning back to the counsel.

"Clients," he again said. "We're here to see the officer, whom I hear is in the next room."

"Business before pleasure?" Russ asked the lawyer with a laugh. Boston laughed as well.

"Yes, you could say that. If you will excuse us," he said with a slight bow.

The door opened. The ladies looked up and held their breaths not knowing just who was going to come through the entry.

"Ah, Officer Montgomery, I assume," Boston said as he held out his hand towards the lady in the blue dress. She shook it with a bit of surprise on her face, as he seemed to have spotted her right out. But as she took his hand, she then knew why.

"Ah," she said in her mind. "A Plant."

"Yes ma'am, a Plant," he said aloud. "I am the defense counsel for the upcoming trial. These are my clients that I'm sure the ladies at the end of the table will know."

Meryl and Millie sat and stared at the two men – twins in fact. Both were wearing top hats, both were wearing tuxedoes, both held walking sticks, and both wore small black sun glasses. They also were both wearing a chain around their necks with a small golden disk on them that Sara recognized.

Boston looked back at the two statues and shook his head. "Gentlemen, your hats. Remove them in the presence of ladies!"

As if choreographed, they both reached up and removed their respected hats. The one man had short spiky hair that was a buff yellow. The other man needed to take his higher than the other man, as his hair stood on end, and was slightly swept back.

"Vash!" Meryl exclaimed rising to her feet.

He smiled – briefly. A dish banging off his forehead decked him, much to the other man's surprise.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF NOT RETURNING TO ME AFTER DEFEATING…" Meryl bellowed. She then noticed the other man looking at her with the confused expression. "Hey, who are you?"

"Brother, is this the person you said was waiting for you?" the man asked.

Meryl froze for a moment then staggered back into her seat with her eyes as wide as saucers. "KNIVES!? THAT'S MILLIONS KNIVES!?" she pointed with an accusing finger.

Boston held his hand up. "Madam, not that you haven't brought enough attention to ourselves, but may we please be seated?"

"Not to worry, counsel," Sara noted. "The outside of this room did not hear a thing – I saw to that."

A quick peek by the lawyer out of the room found the people all still and frozen, except for Brandywine, who was looking around as if out of the loop.

"No problem, Miss Artist!" he cheerfully said. "We'll be letting everyone loose in a moment!"

"'kay!" she replied as she continued to look about and shrugged. She munched on her salad waiting for life to return to the hotel. But she did hear the name Vash spoken. The legendary outlaw was in that room? And his brother Knives as well?

She remembered the goofy look she got from one of them.

"You've got to be kidding!" she mumbled. "Why would D'two worry about THAT goof-ball?"

"I must say, you still have quite an arm, Meryl…" Vash wobbled as he was assisted to his feet from the floor by two sets of hands. Glancing to his left, he found Knives. Blearily to his right, he found Meryl, fully decked out in her Ball gown. It was the first time he had ever seen the Insurance Girl in a dress before. He stopped them and stayed on one knee.

"You look… beautiful… in that dress," he said to her.

Meryl gasped and held her breath as he handed her a corsage.

"It would please me, if you were to be my date for tonight…"

Meryl sat squat with the red flowers – geraniums – in her hands. She looked up at Vash, who was rubbing his forehead where she had clobbered him earlier.

"Ah, I see I found you two in your natural positions!" a familiar voice said from behind them.

Burnside had returned. With him was a man dressed as a pastor. The other was a long thin man in a business suit.

"Hi honey, I'm home!" he said to the woman at the far end of the table.

"Sweetie!" Millie squealed, and would have run around the table to jump her husband, if not for the fact that Vash had jumped first and was squishing his friend in a bear hug.

"WOLFWOOD! WOLFWOOD! MY GOD, IT REALLY IS YOU!" Vash bellowed as he spun the gunfighter around. "YOU'VE COME BACK! YOU'VE COME BACK FROM THE DEAD OLD YELLAR!"

"No, I'm still quite dead," Wolfwood said in his quiet but otherwise unhappy voice.

Vash held him at arms length and pondered him. "Ah, then that would explain the wings and feathers I just spread across the room."

"Yup," Nick said as he slugged Vash in the shoulder. "That would explain it."

"Ow! – You know, for a dead person, you do feel hard enough!" Vash needed to step back or get run over by Millie.

"Wings?" Meryl asked Vash as he stood a bit shocked to see those two locked together like they were. "What wings?"

Vash looked at her then back at the couple. "Ah," he said. He removed his right dress glove and looked at Meryl. "Umm… here… pardon me for touching you here, but…"

He placed his bare hand on her bare shoulder. She jumped at the touch, but as she felt it, a pair of black wings caused Millie to vanish before her. They were attached to Wolfwood's back, and he had them draped across themselves.

"Hey! Do you mind with the stopping and starting already!?" Brandywine was getting a bit upset over having everyone frozen once again. "Oh, by the way – nice wings buddy!"

Meryl looked up at Vash, who still seemed confused over Millie and Wolfwood. She felt a tap to her elbow, and found Miami gesturing that she should take him to his seat beside her.

"Umm… may I ask what is going on here?" he questioned as he blindly followed Meryl's lead to the far end of the table.

"It has been a wild week and a half," Meryl said as she showed him to his chair. It got a little clumsy at that point as Vash first sat down then remembered his manners and stood up to assist Meryl to her seat. She in turn was wondering why Vash had stood up, until he took the back of her chair and gestured for her to sit. She then proceeded to flop in the chair, as she still was having trouble with the dress and the seated position. But she wasn't ready for Vash to be kneeling beside her as he pinned the corsage to her dress.

"They're beautiful flowers," she said quietly.

"Gardenias," Vash noted. "They were Rem's favorites. I grew them myself."

"Umm… She was a very nice lady," Meryl said. Vash looked up at her. She smiled. "Vash, there are some things you need to be brought up to date on."

Knives stared at the wings on the back of his former Gung-Ho Gun. He plucked a feather that had landed on his lapel and looked at it with a curious expression. The man who was dressed as a pastor looked at it as well.

"Pretty, isn't it?" he said. Knives nodded.

Wolfwood opened his wings and tucked them behind himself again. He looked at Knives with an angry stare then fell back a bit. There was something wrong here. Knives seemed docile – void of his former violent self.

"Why does Wolfwood have wings?" Knives asked the pastor. "Is he an angel?"

The question brought a giggle from Millie. Wolfwood looked at her with a crooked face.

"Gee, thanks hon," he snorted, which made Millie giggle even more.

"Wolfwood is a Plant, just like you my son," the pastor said.

"HE'S A WHAT!?" Vash yelped.

"Pastor North!" Millie exclaimed.

"Mrs. Saverem," he replied as he got a face full of Millie.

"WHAT DID HE CALL HER!?" Vash yelled while pointing at North.

"OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!" Brandywine yelled back. "CAN'T YOU FREEZE ME AS WELL WHEN YOU ZAP THESE PEOPLE!? CAN'T YOU JUST SOUND-PROOF THAT ROOM!?"

Sara looked at the ceiling. "Sorry," she sent to her fellow Plant. Brandywine stared at her food at it hung in mid air as it was being served to her by the stilled waiter. She grunted.

----------------------------------------

Frankfort scanned the north of town. He too had been amused by the humans who were stopping and starting like someone was turning on and off a toy. Berlin watched the Bad Lads freeze and start and freeze again with much delight.

"Zere ist a very powerful Plant in town tonight to do zis much mayhem vith the humans vithout harming zem," Frankfort mused. "It makes it almost hard not to take advantage of zis!"

He drew a bead on a frozen man in the center of Market Street. His internal crosshairs centered on the man's back. He drew his mind's trigger tight… A wisp of energy started to form on his back… The crosshairs shrunk to a simple spot on the man's back…

A pair of eyes filled his view making him quickly withdraw his shot.

"Frankfort, much as I would enjoy taking advantage of this little blip in these human's miserable lives, firing off now into town will only draw attention to you – it was bad enough that you blew up that ship earlier," D'two scolded him. "Now stay your shot!"

Frankfort took in a long breath and concentrated on returning the unspent energy to the void he had tapped it from.

"Very good Frankfort," D'two said. "Be patient. Have you found your target yet?"

Frankfort sighed as he returned to his targeting. "I have – zere ist just too much buildink between my shot and ze target - unt dese constant on unt off periods vould ruin de shot as vell."

"Very well," D'two said. "I will leave it in your hand." His laughter rattled through their heads for a few minutes.

The brothers heaved a sigh.

"Don't do zat again," Berlin warned.

"You betcha," Frankfort agreed as he returned to his scanning. He moved his sights to the far end of town. He could see a formation of vehicles moving towards them.

"Bruder," he said, "I need a zcoutink mission of you."

Berlin looked down his brother's arm to get his bearings where he wanted him to go. "Humm… lights… many lights. I'll tell you vat it iz in a few minutes…"

He swung his long thin arms behind himself and dashed in the direction of the next mesa that made up the southern pass into town. He quickly leapt the chasm with ease, then the next smaller one. The third one was trickier, as it was still wet from the rain, and he slipped. He quickly recovered and crossed over the forth and final gap to the fifth mesa at the north of town. He slid behind a large rock and looked down on the gathering of steamers and cars. He held out his arm like his brother, but aimed the palm of his hand at the group below.

"When is the boss getting here?" he heard. "I'm sure that if the Bad Lads get wind of Neon being in the jail, they'll take a chance to spring him tonight while the town is distracted…"

"The boss will be here," another one said. "We need to wait until 9:00 anyway so that the crowds are in the civic center area instead of the center of town."

Berlin turned away and looked up at the sky. "Did you hear dat Frankfort?" he asked. "Zounds like ve're gonna have a good old fashioned rumble in town tonight!"

"Unt da center of attention vill be Brilliance Dynamite Neon… Splendid! Get back here, schnell!"

----------------------------------------

Vash looked as if he was having a headache. He stared at Wolfwood's wings. His friend noticed and concentrated. They retracted into his back.

"That's a neat trick!" Millie said. Meryl looked at her with a bit of confusion.

"You can see his wings?" she asked her.

"Of course – can't you?" Millie replied. "Well, then again, not now, but just a moment ago…" Meryl placed her hand across Millie's mouth.

North cleared his throat. "Millie can see them since he and she were together for so long."

Wolfwood looked at the pastor. "You know, I've been meaning to ask just how you could have been there in 1894 AND in 1965, then again right now. Just how many of there are you?"

North laughed as Mr. Burnside looked at the roof. "We're observers, Nick. Our duties allow us to transverse time and space. Plus it helps to have a ship that can take us to these time-line hot spots."

"So, are you the ship's chaplain or something?" Wolfwood asked.

North laughed louder. "Oh no, I'm not even close to being that. I'm an artist and writer, as well as a crack-pot scientist. Granted, I was a certified pastor when back in 1894, so if you're worried that your marriage was bogus…"

Vash raised his hand. North pointed at him.

"Teacher, just what are you talking about?" he asked. "How did Wolfwood and Millie get back to 1894 – I would assume Earth, right?"

North nodded. "An accident happened during an attack on them in the Steamer. A fellow Plantoid attempted to kill them, but when the good officer interceded, the attack turned into rip in time which sent everyone involved into their family's past – it was a very crucial moment in history."

"I went back and met Rem and Alex before they were to leave on the SEEDS mission," Meryl said to a wide eyed Vash.

"You met Rem?" he whimpered. Knives stared as well, slack jawed. Meryl nodded.

"Wasn't she the greatest?" he asked as he chewed on a cloth napkin.

Meryl blushed a bit at the memory of the visit to Thornton Air Force Base. "She was very beautiful," she said. "I can understand why you hold her in such esteem. But I think you have someone here to thank for that."

Vash blinked as he saw Meryl look over at her friend beside her. Millie was holding Wolfwood's hand. The wedding ring on her hand stood out like a beacon to him.

"What do you mean?" Vash asked a bit bewildered.

North spoke up. "In 1894, on the vast open grasslands of the panhandle region of the Oklahoma Territory, Millie Thompson and Nicholas D. Wolfwood arrived in a land-claim cottage set up by the Oklahoma Land Trust Company, whose business it was to set up and prepare homesteads for settlers in the new lands of the western United States. There, they began life as the Reverend and Mrs. Nicholas Saverem, to whom you owe your life to twice."

"Twice?" Vash asked.

"Twice?" Meryl also asked. "I know what the first was… Rem Saverem is a descendant of these two." Vash made a goofy face as he tried to fathom what he had just heard. Meryl shook her head. "What was the other?"

North raised a finger in the air. "Don't forget, they raised 12 children!"

"Whoa! That's a horde!" Vash noted.

"Tell me about it!" Millie said while Nick looked at the roof.

"Oh yea," he gurgled.

"The first child – the one you took from here to Earth with you, do you remember who she married?"

Wolfwood nodded. "Sure – Ed Witherspoon of Topeka, Kansas – he ran the Kansas City Advertising Film Company. Good kid – lousy businessman."

"Witherspoon? I know that name from somewhere," Vash said as he pondered.

"So do I," Sara noted, also thinking hard.

North nodded his head. "You see, as observers and historians, we have the benefit of being able to see these thin lines of thread that binds us all. Then let me tell you one name, and you'll know who I speak of…"

"Joey," Knives said. North nodded and smiled.

"Exactly," North said as both Sara and Vash's eye grew wide. "Though neither knew it, Rem Saverem and Joey Witherspoon were related – distant cousins by the time they worked together aboard the SEEDS ship. But, in a history documented event, we know one more thing about Joey Witherspoon…"

"North," a voice said to them through their minds, "please don't tell them."

The priest shook his head. "We have been through this already, Madam Chairman. It is their right to know and you know it."

There was an audible sigh through the room. "Very well…" a response came.

"Who was that?" Meryl asked as she looked about the room with wide small eyes.

"Mommy," Vash gritted through his teeth. "You'll love to meet her."

"I thought I already had, but I guess hearing her in my head is different than over the monitor on the Steamer," Meryl noted.

Vash got a serious look on his face. "Okay Mr. North… explain."

North looked over at Sara. "A quick synopsis of Joey Witherspoon, if you please?" he asked her.

She cleared her throat. "My mother told me about Joey – he was a friend of my parents. As a Captain in the Army, he was responsible for dealing with rouge Plantoids…"

"Which is where he met up with your mother, and more specifically, your uncle…" North interjected.

"Uncle?" Wolfwood asked. He saw Sara look down at the table and grimace.

"The Devil of Detroit, Delta 2," she said. Vash and Knives, even Boston and Miami stared at Sara.

"What?" Millie asked confused.

"Yea, fill us in!" Meryl added.

"Delta 2," Vash said, "was the Plant who destroyed a city on Old Earth prior to the launch of SEEDS."

"Damaged a city is more like it," North corrected. "He detonated his power link to The Source, which created a massive shockwave that blew out all the windows in a 10 mile radius – iles to you folks – killing over one hundred, and injuring scores. But… his bringing down and ultimate capture was done by his sister – your mother – Delta 4, AKA Cindy, and then captured by Captain Joey Witherspoon and his men."

"You're the daughter of Cindy?" Knives asked Sara. "I'm impressed."

Wolfwood again looked at Knives. His demeanor was completely out of character for this man he had once worked for. Why the big change?

"Witherspoon," Sara continued, "advanced through the Army, eventually becoming a Colonel, and one of four 'ship's captains' that would cycle through as commander of the main ship in the fleet, Alpha. This ship also contained the senior members of the SEEDS Council – the 'Old Men' as they called them."

North nodded to Sara's synopsis. "Fortunately, like any good system of government, having all of your eggs in one basket wasn't the way SEEDS was laid out. Other 'Old Men' were scattered throughout the fleet. If I'm correct, as of last scan by our ships, there were still twenty-four of these leaders in Coldsleep as we speak. BUT – I digress… Joey Witherspoon was now on call as commander pro tem of the SEEDS fleet. But just prior to his last Coldsleep awakening, someone visited his pod in the sleeper's bay. This person removed from him samples of his sperm. In turn, this sample was introduced into Delta 87, the Plant in use in Unit #2 of his ship. This was the plan set forth by Delta 2 for revenge over Witherspoon and his sister for his detainment years prior."

"How could Delta 2 do that without 87's permission?" Boston asked.

"My uncle is a very powerful Plant, Mr. Boston," Sara said while never taking her eyes off the table. A hand reached out and touched her hand. She looked over to find Knives nodding to her. She held her breath.

"Correct," North said. "Our scans showed that he is capable of overpowering the minds of not only humans but Plants as well. You see, all Plants, like humans, have their own special capabilities. Since Delta 2 never wanted to draw power for human use, he directed his energies into developing his mental strengths. And it's quite obvious that he is not the only one with that ability."

Sara looked at the pastor. "Well you did keep the folks outside this room from hearing us earlier," he added. She looked down at the table. She found Knives now clutching her hand.

"Please, don't worry – I know how you feel."

She looked at the man holding her hand. He had a tear rolling down his cheek from behind his dark glasses. Even Wolfwood noticed that.

"Back on Earth, as the capabilities of the Plants were discovered, we developed these," North said as he pulled out a device he had hanging around his neck. It looked like a doorknob.

"A mental shielding device," Sara noted. "I wondered why I couldn't sense you."

North tilted his head with a wry smile. "Not that I wouldn't like to have you bouncing about my head, but we observers need to keep a clear mind. Vash and Knives here are wearing the simple versions that were keyed specifically to Delta 2's frequency…"

"Which is why you may have noticed a slight change in my attitude," Knives said to the glare he was receiving from across the table.

"Really?" a cold response dropped on him from Wolfwood. Millie nearly crushed his hand. He looked over at her expecting to find some sort of scolding coming from her, but she had a look of fear on her face.

"Don't worry," Vash told her. "Knives has been quite different since the Doorknob was placed over his neck. He's quite safe. I must say, since I've worn this, I have felt a pressure relieved from my mind as well."

"The mind of Delta 2 is rather strong at controlling people," North continued. "We have figured that even though he was contained, the vessel he was in actually allowed him to concentrate his powers – as you may remember when you saw it when you visited Detroit in your little excursion." He gestured to Sara and she nodded.

"It was quite – oppressive…" she said.

"Not surprising," North commented. "We figure that was how he got on the SEEDS ships as well. The people involved seemed to be entranced. Not only did they install a cradle for the unit, they specially mounted it so that it would safe-land on whatever planet it made fall on even if the ship around it was destroyed – which is what happened of course."

Knives lowered his head. Sara now saw more tears rolling down his face. This was the man she had been sent off to capture? He seemed repentant - not the volatile person as reported.

"Wait a minute," Vash barked which made everyone jump. Meryl saw a sense of realization flowing over his face, and a look of dread as well. She grabbed his hand and he held her's tight. "Do I understand what you're saying? Joey was…"

North nodded. "…Your father," he completed. "DNA evidence confirms that you two are only part Plant."

"No!" Knives spat and he slammed the table with his fist. "I killed my father? I nearly killed my mother… who could make me do that? WHO!?"

North drank some water. "Well, you see, Delta 2's plan didn't expect one thing," he said as he looked to the head of the table. "Millie, does your family have a history of having twins?"

"Why yes – yes we do," she said a bit nervously.

"Right," North said as he put down the glass. "He expected one child – he got two. Witherspoon's vengeance on Delta 2's plans was to throw a monkey wrench into the works by having two babies. At first, they were the same – and he thought that he had it made. He could have two warriors to do his bidding. But he found that he could only control one of them. And because of this, he wound up with a set of polar opposites."

"And because of these opposites," Sara surmised, "we have the world that we have presented to us."

North nodded. "We have the technology to see possible alternate time lines and such – and in time lines, Newton's law that states 'for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction' applies big time. We know what would have happened if Vash was not there – we know what would have happened if Knives was not there… The fact of the matter is this is the reality we must deal with. But, the interesting thing is, it all leads back to one event." He pointed across from himself at the man and woman at the head of the table.

"If Delta 2 and his cronies had not had the unfortunate mistake of sending you two into the past, he never would have been here to do his deeds today. As a matter of fact, if you two don't go, the incident on the SEEDS ship with Vash and Knives would never had happened either, as Rem and Joey would not have been there. No Joey and the events of Detroit might have not occurred, or would have changed dramatically. Without that one warp of time, this whole history collapses like a stack of cards."

Boston coughed and nodded. "Good. That is the way I want you to report it to the judges."

"Huh?" Wolfwood asked. "What the hell? You mean this was a pre-trial group meeting?"

North shrugged. "Not intentionally. But since we were near the homestead that Vash and Knives were living in, it only seemed fitting that we gathered here and chew the fat, so to say. As it is, the trial is still a month or so away, since the judges aren't quite ready yet."

Meryl looked at Vash. He was staring at the table much like his brother had.

"Why did you come here then, instead of back to where you left us after you beat Knives?" she asked him quietly.

He drew a breath and let it go slowly. "Kinza was right," he said.

"Who?" Meryl asked.

"A messenger…" Vash noted. "He said I had successfully disarmed my brother, but the only way I would have truly disarmed him was if I sent one more bullet here…" He placed his finger to his head and made like a gun. Meryl winced.

"I knew I could handle him, but I wasn't sure about others… about you… I didn't want him harming anyone else. Rem told me to take care of Knives… That's what I've been doing."

"He doesn't seem harmful now," she said.

Wolfwood grunted at that comment. "Now," he emphasized. "Vash was right. Knives is… was… a very dangerous man. He could force his will on you – make you do things you would never have imagined – make a monster of you… I know… I saw what he did to Legato."

Vash glared at Wolfwood. He had momentarily forgotten that he too was a Gung-Ho Gun, but he had renounced his membership when he had sided with the Typhoon.

"Still," Vash continued, "that was before I learned that he actually was being manipulated by an outside force. Of course the Plants have known of the Devil of Detroit – the Plant that dared to call himself God." He shook his head and sighed. "There is such malevolence in his energy - Such hatred. It makes me wonder what was done to him to make him that way."

"Hatred is not his problem," Miami said. Everyone had not heard her all evening – the sudden sound of her voice made a few jump in their seats. "He is consumed by more than just hatred. Hatred alone would not explain his out and out destruction of both humans and Plants, and all things living. I have been touched by him – felt his presence while inside my vessel. He wants nothing more than the end of the universe, and the fulfillment of his own self-made prophecy of bringing The Source here to this level."

North sat back. "Really… now that would be interesting, if not impossible."

"Why so?" Boston asked.

North looked up at the ceiling. "Well, I'm not sure I should be saying this, but since we're not actually time hopping here, I guess that it would now fall under necessary secrets… We know what The Source is to the Plants. Our ships use it all the time."

Sara looked at North as if he had said he was Delta 2's best friend. "Oh come now… even the Plantoids can't fully enter The Source – they'd be destroyed."

North shook his head. "It depends on how you enter The Source. To you, it is an energy storm that you can tap. To us, we know it as the Trans-Dimensional Barrier Zone, and it's the area of space we use to move through time and dimensions through. The energy that you tap is created by the passing of time – it is the reason why Plants do not age as humans do – it is why they say you live out of time… it's because you do."

Brandywine sat silent in the dining room, her thoughts tapped into the room next door. When the commentary of the others with her in the main dining room would get on about the strange discussion coming from the next room, she would quietly press her influence on their minds to forget what they heard. She did this to both prevent gossip about those in there, and to quell her own fears of the information spreading that she was hearing. She made those at her own table see her as having a wonderful time, laughing and chatting, while in reality, she was deep in concentration, listening to every word the strangers spoke. When their dinners came, the other room became silent though there was the occasional chatter sent from one Plant to another through telepathy. It gave Brandywine time to ponder what she had heard.

"Pastor North," Millie asked as desert was served, "may I ask you a question?"

He waved his hand to her to continue.

She showed him the ring on her hand. "Back in 1894, this came with a tag attached signed 'S' – may I ask who 'S' was?"

North smiled and sipped on his after-dinner coffee. "A very dear friend," he said. "I can't tell you much more, as she would probably throttle me… but she's still about, helping a little here, doing some work there. You see, I only work with those I can trust. I would trust her with my life."

"A lady friend, North?" Wolfwood cracked at him. "Isn't that against your religion?"

North leaned on his chair and gave the former gunslinger a cockeyed look. "I'm not catholic, son. And you met her, if my memory is correct, though you probably wouldn't remember."

Wolfwood blinked. "I did? When?"

North sat back again and drank his coffee. "If I told you, I'd have to maim you… but in this case, since she was in disguise, you'd not remember her face correctly anyway. Remember when you sold Diamond Mane?"

"Ooooh, not that time!" Millie whined. "I didn't want to sell him! He was a wonderful horse!"

North laughed. "Well, Nightwatch – his real name – was HER horse. When you sold him, you sold him back to her without knowing it."

Wolfwood got a squirreled look on his face. "You guys were all over the place back then, weren't you? I bet even the horse was an operative of yours!"

"Hey, we had to watch over our investment!" North grinned. "And yes he is."

"North, you're beginning to worry me," Wolfwood said. North gave a bellowing laugh.

"Well, let me know if a thomas calls you idiot one day – I'll let you know. I know he did a few times as a horse on Earth!"

Wolfwood crumpled in his seat, an expression of dismay on his face. "Crap!" he grumbled. "You mean those time I thought I heard that horse talk were real?"

North chortled. "Well, don't worry – I was kidding about the thomases… he wouldn't stoop to becoming one of those. A cat though…"

Miami looked down at the cat that had followed her into the room all the way from the Steamer.

"Idiot," it said.

Outside, to the north of town, a group of heavily armed men gathered to take down their enemy – a man held in the city jail. To the south, this man's men were readying his rescue from the law.

Frankfort and Berlin stood on the mesa, a few more drops of rain splattering over their faces. Tonight they would see to it that it would rain red in Promontory Falls.

oOo

**Next Episode**

_**It is said that the measure of a man is by the deeds that he has done. **_

Brilliance Dynamite Neon is a man with a long measure of deeds done, mostly vicious, mostly violent, mostly deadly.

The smile of a woman can melt a man's soul.

The touch of her hand on even the coldest of hearts can melt the icy wall that has been built up over many years.

In the rain of a cold Promontory Falls night, B.D.N. stands the chance for redemption.

He must run for his life

He must run for the life of a woman

Will he be known by this deed, or shall they forever measure him by his past?

Next Episode of TRIGUN: MOON CHILD - Chapter Ten - Riders of the Storm - the Final story in the Promontory Falls Trilogy

A man is measured by his deeds.

Brilliance Dynamite Neon - Shine baby, shine

Elb Kinza, North, Diamond Mane/Nightwatch, GENUINE DOORKNOB, The Observers ©2003 DMS – Used with permission  
Ed Burnside ©2003 S. Nordwall – Used with permission  
All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow  
Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0311.19


	13. Riders of the Storm

**Chapter Ten**

TRIGUN:**  
****MOON CHILD**

**- The Promontory Falls Trilogy -**

Part 3

**Riders of the Storm**

**By R. A. Stott**

**EDITOR'S NOTE: Parental Warning – Language and Graphic References**

"YAAAAH! THE PAIN! THE TORMENT!" shouted Knives as he held his throat as if being choked. "That was how it was like when Mr. Boston dropped this medallion over my head. It was like someone pulled a plug out."

The people in the hotel lobby were staring at the tall man in the tuxedo and top hat as he and his group headed for the exit. His little demonstration on how it was when the Doorknob device had been given to him had drawn much attention, and made Vash, Wolfwood and the girls nervous.

"Oh, look at this!" Meryl griped as they all stepped out onto the covered porch on the front of the hotel. She was waving her arms at the wet dirt street that had greeted them.

Vash took his walking cane and tapped the area just off the porch. "It looks like it's just surface mud – the ground underneath is still rock hard."

"Yes, but look at that!" she complained as she pointed at a woman who was attempting to walk through the thin muddy streets while holding up her dress trying to keep it clean, which made her slip a few times. She stopped and looked back at a man who was trying to follow her. He was skidding and sliding and turning his shiny black shoes a dirty brown.

Meryl gestured to the north and looked at her gown. "The Civic Center is 10 blocks up the street! How are we supposed to get up there in this?"

"At least it's stopped raining," Millie noted just as a large drop of water splattered across her nose.

Boston looked around the corner of the building at his soggy convertible car. "Well, I'm sorry to say that my vehicle is a swimming pool right now… I really should let the water out…"

"Well then," Vash said as he adjusted his dark glasses, "as a gentleman, there is only one thing that I can do." He looked at Meryl, who was giving him a questioning look. He handed her his walking stick, then un-expectantly reached down and picked her up in his arms.

"Hey!" she squeaked, nearly using the stick to club him. "What are you doing!?"

"Taking you to the Ball of course," Vash said as he started to walk up the muddy street with her. She quickly clung to him as she saw the liquid soil splatter his shoes. A giggle and a laugh behind him told her that the other ladies were getting the same service from some of the men. She looked around Vash's arm to see Millie being hauled up by Wolfwood, who had a silly smile on his face. North carried Miami. She was shocked to see that Knives had his arms full of Sara.

Meryl looked up at Vash from her position in his arms. She sighed and rested her head against his chest.

"Just like that other time," she pondered.

"Excuse me?" Vash asked.

"Oh, nothing," she said. "This just reminded me of something." She felt him raise her up a bit and hold her a bit tighter.

Bryant and Brandywine saw what the others were doing and followed suit, much to Bryant's initial pleasure. His lady was light and petite, but the gown seemed to have a mind of its own. It took his mother to straighten it out so they didn't tumble into the street.

Brandywine looked at the group ahead of her. Vash the Stampede was there. So was Millions Knives. But Vash… she had been ordered to take out all that would help this man. But now that she defied those orders, she worried about the outcome. D'two wasn't going to allow this. How would he get his retribution?

Frankfort found his target. He aimed and drew a bead.

Boston stepped in the way. He pulled back. He wanted a clear shot, and this large Plant wasn't it. He raised his arm and cooled down his back.

"Zey are not makink dis easy, are dey?" Berlin cracked. Frankfort whacked him on the head.

"Ve have a bead on our target, dummkopf," his brother snorted. "Use your strength to keep an eye on zem."

Berlin rubbed his head and grumbled something under his breath. He held out his palm and concentrated on the target and where it was heading.

Frankfort looked over the edge of the mesa at the gathering of Bad Lads below. They were starting to move towards the city. He smiled under his wraps.

"It von't be long," he noted. A quick targeting of the north of town told him that the rival group was moving as well, circling the outer perimeter of the city. "Move to da north mesa again, dear bruder," he said. "Be ready on ze reflection!"

Berlin grinned and nodded. He leapt off for the far end of town.

B.D.N. looked up at the dripping roof. Like many places in the Promontory Valley, the jail had not seen rain in some time, so knowing if the roof was water-tight took a good drenching to find out.

His cell was at the back end of the sloping roof, and it was more a colander than a ceiling. Dallas at least gave him a chair to sit near the bars with so that the flow of moisture along the back wall and the bench/waterfall could be avoided.

He stood up and moved about the back of his cell looking at the flowing water. A damp cool breeze blew in the open barred window. Just the other day he was leading his men on another successful raid. Now here he was in a wet jail waiting the feds and their heavy chained steel coach. And to boot – his freshly mended hand was aching in the moist air. Very un-flashy.

"Neon," a small voice called behind him. He looked back to see a small woman and a priest standing at the bars. She curtsied to him in her Ball gown. The priest simply shrugged.

"She insisted on stopping by on the way to the Ball," North said as he kicked some built up mud off his shoes against the brick wall.

The prisoner stepped over to the bars and bent down to the lady. He reached out and touched her chin with his huge hand.

"You're a dizzying parade sunshine," he said. "Spectacular fireworks at midnight."

She gave him a slight smile and took his hand. "Thank you," she said then turned away. B.D.N watched her leave the back room where the cell was. He slowly stood up and looked at the priest.

"What are you doing with her?" he gruffly asked.

"I'm just being her escort tonight," North smiled. "Oddly, she would have enjoyed your company, but obviously, circumstances prevent it."

"Why? Why does she always come to me?" the outlaw asked North. "Even after what I put her through… what I did to her?"

"Philo, I guess," North replied. "You're her reminder of him." With that, North left the room as well. Neon sat back down on the chair and stared at the floor for some time afterwards.

"I'm not too heavy for you, am I honey?" Millie asked as she cuddled up to her husband's head.

Wolfwood let out a laugh. "I used to fling that cross-punisher of mine about all the time, sweetie. You're light as a feather!"

She giggled. "A two hundred pound feather!" she exclaimed. She leaned over and whispered in his ear. "Stop for a minute at that porch would you?"

"You've been quiet, Miss Sara," Knives said as he stepped through the muddy streets with her in his arms.

The officer looked up at him. This was the man that she had originally been sent to capture. The wild man that caused such pain and destruction, only to have most of it get blamed on his twin brother. Yet he seemed so… subdued?

Knives smiled. "I think I know why," he said. "I know your mission. I'm not the man you were expecting, am I?"

"No sir… no you are not." She stared at a tassel on her dress and twirled it in her finger. This was strange. Her father would probably be having kittens right about now if he knew what was going on.

"Believe me, I'm just as surprised as you are," Knives continued. "My mind is clear now… probably for the first time in over a hundred some odd years. I've been liberated, yet this feeling is un-natural to me - And all because of this little disk around my neck… so strange. It allows me to see the world anew. It allows me to see the beauty I've had masked out." He laughed again.

"What?" she asked.

He grinned. "I'm starting to sound like I used to onboard the Alpha… the crew used to call me the Philosopher… their little scholar. Damn, what I did to them… I can still feel it."

Sara reached up and touched Knives cheek. "It's not your fault," she told him in his mind. "My uncle is to blame."

"Is he?" he said back in her mind. "Or was I a willing accomplice?" He sighed and looked ahead. "I guess that will be the judgment of the trial, won't it?"

Sara lowered her head. "I guess so," she thought. She hung on as Knives adjusted his hold on her, raising her up a bit.

"It doesn't matter right now," he said. "I can enjoy my final night of freedom. I have the prettiest Plant in my arms, and we have a Ball to attend, right?"

Sara looked up at him again. "You have the what?"

He looked down and smiled. "I have the prettiest Plant in my arms tonight – that was a compliment, right? It's been so long that I could make one correctly."

He reached down and kissed her.

Sara held her breath. There was a fire between them as he touched her lips with his. This was wrong, right?

Lexington… her mind raced back to Lexington. She pushed back slightly.

"Ah, I understand," Knives said pulling away. "But he's started his 10 year commitment… you will be all alone during that time if you wait for him to cycle through the containment system properly."

"Time doesn't matter to us, you should know that," Sara gasped as the air returned to her lungs.

"True," he agreed. "But I'm sure he would understand if you were to grant a dying man his last wish, right?"

"Dying?" she asked giving him a shocked look.

"Miss Sara, do you really think the Council of Plants is going to let me go so peacefully?" Knives shifted her again as they approached the Civic Center. "If the humans taught them anything on this world, capitol punishment is quite acceptable."

Sara pondered this. "I had not thought about that," she said as she rested her head against his shoulder. "But the entire Plant community knows of the Devil of Detroit. I'm sure if they knew you were persuaded by him…"

Knives laughed. "Maybe at first, but later? No, even though I never knew it, I became his disciple. He may have been the source of my malice, but he wasn't later on. That was simply me following through with his initial commands. He was an overall guide to my hatred, but I was the one who set it free."

He stopped for a minute and looked up into the night sky. "You know, he never contacted me directly like I did with the Gung-Ho Guns… Amazing what can be achieved when you simply start a rock rolling down a hill, isn't it?"

Sara tightened her grip with her left arm around his shoulder. She then heard him laugh a bit.

"I would say we started a trend," he noted. She saw he was looking behind them. When she looked around his back, she saw others following their idea – men carrying their partners through the muddy streets, save one. Millie has switched with Wolfwood. She was carrying him while he held her dress up far enough to keep it from dragging in the dirt. They seemed to be enjoying this, as Millie was giggling non-stop.

Sara noticed Brandywine and Bryant not far behind them. She smiled and nodded to them. Knives noticed.

"Ah, the other Plant," he said. "I saw her in the dining room as I was coming… my ribs still hurt…"

Sara looked at him. "Pardon?"

Knives sighed slightly. "I'm afraid I haven't had much chance to understand these emotions that have been released by this little device around my neck," he admitted. "When I saw her earlier, and I noticed that she was a Plant as well, I started acting, umm, goofy is the word? Well, Vash gave me a jab to the ribs, and I've been a bit sore ever since."

Sara blinked. "You certainly aren't the man I expected, Millions Knives," she laughed.

"And you're not the woman I expected, Officer Montgomery," he replied as he returned to walking.

Vash and Meryl were looking back at the missing members of their party. Meryl was shaking her head at her insurance partner. She looked up at Vash and saw a look of concern on his face.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Knives," he bluntly said. "I was afraid he might have problems tonight, but he insisted that he wanted to come. It might be too much for him."

Meryl looked back at the pair that was making their way towards them. "In what way?" she asked. "He looks fine."

Vash shook his head. "You can't see him like I can see him – like a Plant to a Plant. I see a glow coming off him. He's having trouble dealing with his emotions I think. Then again, so is the Officer…"

He held his breath a moment, which caught Meryl's attention. He saw beyond his brother another glow. The other Plant, the one he had seen when they entered the dining room – she was showing an emotional sign as well. She was looking right at him, and he felt the torment running through her.

"She is not going to like this evening too much, Mr. Vash the Stampede," a voice chimed in his head. "Especially since I can use her as a relay, and she never knew it!"

Meryl felt Vash tense up, and hold her tighter than before, almost painfully. She then felt something hot against her belly. She grabbed the chain the strange pendant hung by and held it up off her.

"Vash, what is it?" she asked as she showed him the disk.

"If I said nothing, would you believe me?" he asked.

"Not for a minute, mister," she snapped.

He grunted. "Thought so. I just received a message from Delta 2."

"The name's D'two, thank you," the voice returned. "I do wish you people would get that right!"

"I TOLD YOU TO GET OUT AND STAY OUT!" another voice yelled, making Vash step back. This voice was followed by the slamming of a mind's door. Vash teetered slightly, nearly loosing his grip on Meryl. She suddenly had to reach around and grab him around his neck with both arms to keep from falling in the mud. He quickly recomposed himself and gathered her up better.

"Sorry about that," he said. He looked over at Brandywine as she too looked a bit frazzled by the intervention of the voice. He nodded to her and her to him.

"Seems we have dissention in our bad guy's ranks," he noted. He then noticed a shimmer coming from the top of the mesa far off in the distance. He locked on and stared hard. Meryl looked in the direction of his glare and saw nothing but a dark ominous sky. Some rain drops splattered on her face as it started to drizzle again.

"Vash, I don't know what's got you so engrossed, but we've got to get inside, quickly!" she yelped as she tried to stop the larger drops from ruining her dress. She suddenly found herself huddled under Vash's body as he crouched over to shield her from the rain. He trotted the few yards left before reaching the overhang that stuck out of the Civic Center's roof.

The center was actually not built at all, but converted. It was the remains of a large section of a SEEDS ship's hull. It had landed long ago without the rest of its ship, crashing into the side of one of the five mesas that made up the City of Promontory Falls. Its conical shape and large wide opening made it look like a cornucopia that had jutted out of the ground. The massive engine room bulkhead that supported the structure had been cleaned of wall protrusions and fixtures. A large curved section that ran the length of the face of the structure had been replaced with glass and polished steel that had once graced the forward section of a ship. It was a monument to scrounging. Even the ornate lamps that greeted the couples were simply illuminated thrust baffles that had once been used to slow the ship's descent through the atmosphere, though the scrounging artist who had used them as lamps probably never knew this.

"I hope your dress isn't too wet, Miss Meryl," Vash said. She looked at his face, which was close to hers as he had been bent over shielding her from the now pelting rain. She reached up and wiped a trickle off his cheek.

"No, thank you Vash," she said and gave him a quick little kiss on his cheek. It then flashed through her mind that this might not have been a good idea – Vash would probably get all silly and…

Nothing. He simply smiled and placed her on the ground like a gentleman.

"It was a pleasure ma'am," he said. She stood and stared at him, wanting to berate him on something – anything. This goofball of a broom-head - He had caused her so much trouble over the last year and a half – why she could just throttle him for leaving her to wait…

Millie and Wolfwood stood in the rain watching the tall man and small woman hold each other, framed by the glow of a baffle-lamp as they made up for the time lost between them. Knives jogged by them heading for a dry area nearby. Sara watched his brother then looked at his twin. She sighed and wiped some rain off her face – yes rain… that wasn't a tear was it?

North arrived with his cloak covering Miami and her cat. He placed her down on the landing near the entrance to the center. "I've got to go inside and get a few things set for the Ball. Do you want to wait here, or come in with me?"

Miami looked up at the priest and smiled. "I'll wait out here," she said as she stroked the black feline's head.

9:00 chimed on the bank's clock – time for the start of the Ball.

"I'm sorry I didn't come back," Vash whispered.

"Why didn't you come back?" Meryl asked as she pulled back a bit to look at his face. She found his right hand cradling her cheek. His thumb gently wiped a trickle of tear that had rolled down to it as he gently caressed it with his soft cotton dress glove.

"I was afraid," he said in a hushed tone. "I was afraid that even with his powers diminished by my shots, Knives would still pose a threat to you. And the last thing I wanted was the lady who showed me a new way to be hurt."

She gasped. "Oh Vash, you didn't have to worry. How many times have we been able to get out of trouble? I'm a big girl, I can handle these things."

He smiled and rubbed her cheek. "I can see that now," he said as he bent over and they kissed. Millie squealed and dropped Wolfwood.

Dallas heard a noise outside the front of the sheriff's office. He felt a presence to the rear of the building as well. He aimed his right palm at the front of the building, and his left to the rear. A wave of energy bolted from each hand. The front office door popped open letting the force out to form the wall. The rear projection knocked B.D.N. off his chair as it slipped out the barred window to take its position. Unfortunately, the two force walls did not reflect the burning stick of dynamite that someone tossed at the jail's roof.

The men inside the office with Dallas huddled around his feet as he glared at the crumbled ceiling. A new field was holding the chunks above them. He drew his hands back in and pointed them at the debris. The domed shield then allowed the mess to slide to the sides of the room.

B.D.N. gagged from the dust. Pieces of the roof had bounced off his chest.

"Boss! Boss!" a voice from behind the rear wall yelped. He looked over at the window and snarled.

"Beremy!" Neon barked as he recognized the voice. "Who the hell chucked that dynamite? 'You tryin' to kill me?"

"It wasn't us boss," the odd looking Bad Lad said as he looked around the side of the building. "There's another group up at the front of the jail!"

"Spectacular!" he grunted. "There's nothing like the smell of burning gunpowder and the flash of light to put the hell back in your soul! Get this wall down before that other gang gets smart!"

"Right boss," Beremy said as he handed a familiar hand gun through the bars to his leader. He then gestured at three of the Bad Lads that were with him and pointed at the wall. The men took a stance like a set of linebackers in a football game. They then ran at the bricks and adobe and crashed through it with their reinforced uniforms. Neon stepped out of the hole and looked around.

"Smashing boys," he grinned. He looked down at a large flashy hat that was being handed him.

"Got your duds over here boss," Beremy said. "Gotta look your best when we wiped this other group across this town." B.D.N. smiled.

"Something flashy I hope – my Sunday best!" He dropped the heavy neon-laced hat on his head and looked at the dual-dynamo jacket being handed him. It wasn't his largest, but it did come equipped with the massive machine guns in each shoulder.

Another stick of dynamite whistled over the building. He reached up and snatched it from the air to the shock of his men.

"Not very bright ones we're dealin' with here, are we?" Neon grinned as the stick sizzled in his hand. "Look how long this fuse is! You've gotta cut it or wait to chuck 'em like NOW!"

The burning stick was returned to where it came with a heavy toss. Dallas watched it wiz by and dropped to the ground in preparation of the explosion. It detonated over the other gang.

"That was not thunder!" Ross yelped as he saw the flash light up the street. He and a few deputies turned around and started back towards the jail, leaving their wives and girl friends behind. Bryant and Brandywine stopped to watch the commotion. He put her down and took a step back.

"You're not the sheriff," Brandywine said, holding him from following his brother. He looked at her and nodded.

Vash and Knives looked after the running men. They also knew that wasn't lightning, nor was the first clap of thunder. But that wasn't what was drawing their attention now. A power source had started, and they could feel the presence of something dangerous nearby. They both could see a stream of energy – one high up, another seemingly reflecting the first back down into the square in front of them.

"NO!" yelled Miami. She jumped off the steps of the Civic Center. She slid across Bryant's back as a red spot played on it. She then took a blast to her chest.

Sara stood in shock for a moment as she watched the small woman drop into the muddy street. She felt heat swell inside her as anger rose to a critical level. She then saw Knives running for the center of the street. Vash was already there, and he was pointing his silver gun up at an elevated target. Knives butted backs with his brother, holding his black gun he had liberated from his evening's date in the opposite direction at another high target.

"One's on the Mesa to the south," Vash said.

"I've got the other one to the north," Knives reported.

The shots they fired sounded like a single shot. They were hopelessly out of range though.

"Damn!" Knives cursed. "Shall we convert these?"

Vash snapped him a glare. "Are you mad? We'd destroy half the town!"

Knives looked back at his brother. "You never learned how to shoot these things in beam mode, did you?"

"Now is not the time!" Vash barked.

Brandywine bent over the girl at her feet. Sara was beside her with tears streaming down her face.

"Don't cry, Miss Sara," Miami gasped. "I'll be with my Philo soon, that's all."

Meryl did not know which way to look. What sounded like a firefight was coming up the street towards them. Vash and Knives were staring at the women in the street beside them with looks of anger on their faces. A man stepped by her.

North looked at the two gunfighters. "What are you two waiting for - A second round?"

They looked up. The stream of energy was returning. Again, a red spot started to form on Bryant's chest.

"GET DOWN!" Vash barked, shoving the man towards Meryl. As he did, the street behind them splattered as the bolt meant for Bryant struck the ground.

"Meryl, get him inside! He's the target!" Vash ordered. He then looked back at his brother and nodded. They both ran off in opposite directions.

The gun battle was getting nasty. Dallas was able to shield the men around him, but they were still in a crossfire, even though the gunplay had moved into the street. B.D.N. and his men had managed to work along the back side of the buildings. Russ and his men were pinned along the far side of the street as the rival gang was using their vehicles as shooting platforms. Two of the cars were burning in the street, mostly from a series of rounds from Neon's dynamo guns.

"Damn, this town's a pain!" he swore as another piece of structure managed somehow to get in the way of his shot. "Where's Beremy?"

"I think he got wounded back at the jail, boss!" one of the Bad Lads yelped as a shot grazed his right shoulder. Neon gritted his teeth and glared down the ally where the bullet had come from. He turned his dynamos towards the offending gun-car and started blazing away. He removed a good portion of the front of the building then finally struck the car in the fuel cell as his units ran out of ammo.

"Damn, I used too much on these scums," he growled.

"Come on boss, we have your reloads over there!"

B.D.N. looked back behind the brothel house. Two Bad Lads were standing by with a strange looking vehicle that had replacement dynamo units loaded on it.

"Crap… That's Philo's truck," he mumbled. He was guided over to it by one of the Lads since the boss seemed suddenly unable to move on his own. He sat down in the specially designed chair that allowed the two in the bed to remove the inner workings of the dynamos and replace them with fully loaded ones.

"You're smokin', boss," one of the workers said as he slapped the right dynamo, "212 to 212. Give 'em sparks!"

Neon glanced up at the man. "Those were Philo's last words to me scum-bag," he snarled as he grabbed him by the arm. "Don't EVER use that again!"

"Y-yes boss!" the man chirped. Neon stood up quickly, causing the truck to rock hard and making the man fall back and off the vehicle.

"You remember that Philo kept this gang on top of the heap," he thundered. "Without that man… we would not sparkle and glow. Now… back to this trash."

Millie and Sara sat crouched around Miami as North draped his cloak over the injured girl. Meryl stood on the steps looking down at the scene with Bryant behind her where Vash had shoved him. They seemed unable to follow his directions to get the man inside the building.

Brandywine broke. "This is my fault," she cried. "He's getting his retaliation, the bastard! He's getting back at me! DAMN HIM! DAMN HIM TO HELL!"

She opened her eyes and looked up at Bryant. A red dot was forming on his forehead.

"NO!" she shouted, holding her palm out. A wave of energy shot from her and decked Bryant as the ground beside him shattered, scattering pieces of concrete at Meryl. She managed to avoid the larger ones.

Wolfwood stood up out of the mud he had been dropped in, no worse for wear. He drew out his wings and spread them wide. Millie looked back at him, her face wet with tears and rain.

"Get them honey," she whimpered.

"Of all the times I wished I had that damn punisher of mine," he mused as he lifted off. He circled once as he searched for the targets. Like Vash and Knives, he too could see the streamers of light, though he could not tell what they were from. The closest point for this light was to his right side, the northern mesa that Knives was heading for.

"Knives is trying to be a hero – this I gotta see."

"Who the hell are these creeps!?" B.D.N. yelled. Round after round of shot was falling long behind him. The block that the Bad Lads were moving up seemed to be the safest place around – one block back on the other hand was being pelted with munitions and bullets.

"Flatlanders, boss," Beremy reported, finally arriving from the jail area while clutching his bleeding shooting arm.

Neon snorted. "Well, that explains it then. Damn fools are great in open land, but stick them in a city environment and they're flat like a blown out light bulb! Spectacular! How far up are they?"

"Even with us boss," a scout reported.

Neon nodded as he looked around. He pointed up the street. "I'm going to move up there and head for the main street. You low watts hold them here. I'll unleash my dynamos when I get there, got that?"

"You got it boss!" the men around him cheered. They then all took positions around the alley and began a fierce gun battle.

Neon and Beremy scooted along the back of the buildings, the smaller Bad Lad peeking around the corners to see if the coast was clear first. At the final building, Beremy ran the length first and looked down the main street. The other Bad Lads had managed to keep all of the Flatlanders pinned to the area they had planned to hold them at. He gave Neon the okay to come around.

B.D.N. grinned and started his dynamos spinning. "Time to get flashy!" he chortled. "Huh?"

The street they had come to was across from the Civic Center, and he saw a group of women in front of it with the priest he had talked to earlier standing over them. He seemed to be giving last rights to someone.

"Hey boss!" Beremy said. "We're ready when you are!"

Neon wasn't listening. He saw the officer who had brought him in all dressed up for the Ball with a small woman resting in her lap. A spray of golden yellow hair was all he was seeing now. A pink dress with a muddied red bow shown beneath the priest's cloak which was draped over her – Neon dropped to one knee.

"Boss! What is it? Are you sick?"

Neon jumped up and ran for the group across from them, much to Beremy's surprise. "Miami!" he was yelling. "No, Miami!"

"Boss no! Stop yelling, you'll be killed!" Beremy yelped as he followed his leader with an eye on the gun fight going on down the street. He was shocked to find that the fight was so fierce that they managed to get through the street without anyone seeing them.

"Stop right there, Neon!" Meryl shouted with a Derringer pulled. But he slapped it with the back of his hand as he passed her not caring to be stopped. North stepped back to let him in, holding a hand up to Meryl and Millie to hold their guns.

Neon's giant hands barely were filled with the doll-like body of the small Plant as he lifted her off Sara's lap and held her to his chest. The others were shocked, especially Beremy, as they watched him cry over the fallen woman.

"Jason… please Jason… please don't cry."

B.D.N. looked down on her with a look of awe. "M-my name? You know my name?"

She smiled and weakly touched his face with her small hand. "Of course I know your name, Jason… your brother told me."

Beremy opened his portal. "Brother? What brother?"

North cleared his throat. "Jason and Philo Farnsworth," he pointed out. "They were orphaned as children when their parents were killed after the destruction of the city of July – they were separated soon after – Philo was adopted by the brother of their father. The adopting-parents were engineers, hence Philo's mechanical knowledge. Jason here wasn't as lucky. He escaped the orphanage and started his life of crime. He took on the moniker of Brilliance Dynamite Neon while being a roughhouser in the city of December. He had an armorer create his flashy persona when he incorporated his trademark neon displays to his weapons and wardrobe. But it was when he was reunited with his brother that he really began to shine. Philo brought along the technology that made B.D.N. really stand out in the ganglands. It was Philo who created his brother's luminance, along with his wife of course…"

Millie sniffed. "Is there any way we can get her back to a recovery Plant?"

North shook his head. "The nearest one is in the Steamer, and the tunnels back to it are nowhere near here."

"Where is it?" Neon snarled. "Back in that alley, right?"

North looked towards the street then back at B.D.N. "Do you hear that? That is what's preventing us from getting help for her."

"I don't care – I can get her through that! I can get her through anything!" He looked down on the blanched face and moved some of her hair aside. "When I get my hands on the idiot who shot her…"

"It wasn't any of them," Sara said.

"What?" the outlaw snapped. "What do you mean it wasn't any of those losers?"

"It's my fault… damn him, it's MY FAULT!" Brandywine cried. Neon looked down on the woman – there was something about her.

"YOU!" he shouted. "It was YOU!"

A small hand touched his mouth. He looked down on Miami.

"Now… now is not the time… the time to start this," she whispered. "P-please don't worry about me… I will – I will be with Philo soon…" She lowered her hand and gasped slightly.

B.D.N. glowered at Brandywine for a moment as she saw the look on Miami's face relax. The priest bent down and checked her signs.

"She doesn't have long," he said. "Since she wasn't in a containment unit when injured or killed, she can't be revived in a regen unit if she dies."

Neon stood up with the frail body clutched to his chest. He turned and started towards the center of the street. "Now listen," he grumbled, "only those who need to follow me should do so, understand?"

He looked to his left. Millie and Meryl were there. Sara brought up his left side as she borrowed Neon's small personal gun. Brandywine joined her with the snub-nosed pistol she had under her blouse.

"BW?"

She looked back at the steps. Bryant was sitting upright.

She sighed. "I love you," she whispered then swatted Neon on the tail. "Move it lard-ass! We don't have much time!" she barked.

The five of them began their walk leaving North, Beremy, Boston and Bryant behind. Neon stepped to the center of the street and tucked Miami deep under his chest as he bent over to point his whirring dynamos at the ruckus down the street.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" he bellowed as he began a mad run for the heart of the mêlée. Russ, who was behind a wrecked bus, saw the flare of the dynamos and dropped to avoid the stream of bullets that was heading his way. From his crouched position, he saw Sara and Brandywine beside B.D.N.!

"What the hell… Don't fire men!" he shouted to his deputies as they approached.

The Flatlanders were taken by surprise by the rampaging Neon and his machine guns, but only for a moment. The Bad Lads needed to wait as their boss ran through their fire-line. They too were taken by surprise as four women trailed behind him.

Neon was like a demon. His targets were mostly the Flatlander's vehicles, which would erupt in explosions and flames, scattering drivers, gunners and others who were around them. Sara and Brandywine followed up to his right making sure that no one would return fire as they blasted through. Millie and Meryl, both of whom were limited by having only two rounds per Derringer, only used them sparingly, though Meryl had one other weapon – Vash's walking cane, which she used liberally on the few Flatlands dumb enough to get in her way.

Out from a side street slid a large machine. Neon stopped as it blocked their way.

"What the hell is that!?" Meryl shouted as she saw the red glow coming from its long barrel.

"That looks like one of those machines Mr. Vash and Nicholas took on in the desert that one time, Meryl!" Millie said as she punched a Flatlander.

"Security tank!" Sara yelled as she dropped to one knee and took aim at a control box under the neck. She blew it off in one shot, but was surprised that the machine still moved.

"Damn! Flatlanders are pretty good at making lost technology work," B.D.N. snarled as he let his right dynamo loose on the tank. The muzzle was shot off, but the rounded hull of the machine seemed to deflect most of the bullets.

"Gee, when Mr. Vash did that, they usually fell over," Millie noted. She then dove for cover with Meryl as bullets started to fly out of the top of the machine from a Gatling gun that slid out on a boom that had popped out of the back of the tank. B.D.N. and the other ladies dove to the right behind the bus Russ was behind.

"Miss Sara, I'm glad to see you, but what are you doing with him?" he yelled. He then noticed Neon was carrying something. "Oh god, is that the little girl that was with you?"

"Sorry sheriff," Neon said as he looked around the bus as a fender was shredded. "We're on a mission!" Brandywine looked at him with wide eyes - Those were her own words.

"I've got something for this," Neon said. "I need one of you to come around and help me with it."

"What?" Sara asked.

"When I say so, I want one of you to pull on this big round button on my right shoulder. We'll make this beast light up like New Years Day!"

Russ looked at his men. "Give him covering fire boys!"

The deputies started to fire from the rear of the bus, making the gunner take cover behind a bullet-proof plate. Neon jumped around the front of the bus and aimed his right dynamo at the tank.

"NOW!" he yelled.

The button was grabbed and pulled. It was a lanyard which made something deep inside the dynamo wiz. Suddenly a rocket launched from the core unit and struck the tank down.

"Take that bastard!" Neon grinned. He looked beside himself to thank Sara, but found it was Brandywine on the end of the cord.

"Let's go chunky!" she said as she picked up her gun.

He grinned. "Flashy! You're my kinda girl!'

She punched him on the shoulder. "I'm HIS kinda girl," she snarled as she pointed back towards the Civic Center. "Worry about the one in your arms, or I'll blow ya another hole like the one I gave you the other day!" She then ran out into the street and took a defensive position against any incoming fire.

"What did she say?" Meryl asked.

"Not now," Sara said. "Later! Come on!"

The four ladies and the man with his bundle returned to running down the middle of Market Street. They were about to reach Main Street when another tank slid into view. This one seemed busy though, having already lost its long flexible muzzle, and was using the rapid firing Gatling on its back. It gave Neon time to plant one knee on the ground and point his left shoulder at the machine. This time, Millie did the honors, though she nearly yanked B.D.N. over with her enthusiasm.

The gunner saw the coming missile, and swung his gun around. A stream of bullets attempted to strike the projectile as it approached. But all he managed to do was spray the area where the ladies and Neon were with bullets. They dove for cover just as the missile struck its mark.

"Hey, thanks for the assist guys!" Dallas cheered as the tank collapsed in a heap. He then noticed that they hadn't waited for him – they were already half way down the street.

Vash stood up on the nearby second mesa. It had been a long climb, especially in the tuxedo he was in. The dress shoes were cutting into his feet and were lousy for the climb as well. And it was nearly a year and a half since he had properly aimed his trusty gun. The shot he had fired earlier made his arm ache since he hadn't practice in so long. But he was sure that he needed to take down this new threat – after all, it was kin.

"Okay skinny," he yelled as he aimed his gun. "Be a nice fellow and put the hand down."

"Ah, Vash das Stampede," Frankfort said. "I am surprised to zee you, old chum… I t'ought you had retired."

"Seems there's always someone wanting to try my patience," Vash said. "And you just had to ruin my first night out too!"

"Kooped up mit your bruder, ea?" Frankfort snidely giggled. "Actually, I know how you feel, though I've had a bit shorter a time to deal vit mine. I am Frankfort da Shniper – da ultimate combination team in da new Gung-Ho Guns… Mit my bruder, I can zee unt hit any target around any corner or buildink. But at point-blank range, I don't obviously need me bruder, ea?" He raised his arm and pointed his finger at the legendary gunman.

He shot. Vash slid to one side dodging the round. He aimed his silver revolver at Frankfort, but suddenly was knocked down as his top hat was splintered into shreds around him.

"Or do I?" Frankfort chuckled. "Das was Berlin da Mirror, me bruder. He can reflect any shot I fire. Vant to try zome more?"

Knives was still below the summit of the mesa when he saw the reflected shot. He lifted his gun and attempted to convert it to his Angel Arm.

Nothing. His shoulder gave him a sharp pain as he lowered the weapon.

"What? I can't… I can't fire the gun? Why? How?" he whispered.

"Vash's shots he took out of you, dummy!" a voice from above barked. Knives looked up to see Wolfwood floating there.

"Here! Take my gun! Get that bastard before he gets Vash!" Knives tossed his gun up at Wolfwood, who tried to grab it, but found it passing through him like before with weapons.

"Damn! This new body is like the other one I had – I can't hold a gun!" he grumbled. Knives had to scramble down the path to get his black gun before he lost sight of if.

"A lot of good you're gonna do me!" Knives commented. "What do we do now? Can he shoot you?"

The answer came from a feather being removed by a bolt from above. Wolfwood flew around avoiding what was being sent in his direction.

"The answer is YES!" he sniped as another feather was severed. "Get up there and get that pain! I'll distract him!"

"Ich konnte nicht so gut sein, wie ich Bruder am Schießen," Berlin said with glee, "aber ich Ihnen zwei leicht erhalte!"

"Did you understand a word of that?" Wolfwood asked.

"Not a syllable," Knives replied.

"Damn Babel Fish!" they said as they began their attack.

Miami managed to open her eyes. The jostling that all that running was doing was keeping her from dropping off into sleep – yes, sleep… she felt she could sleep for days… but something wet splattered across her nose. It was warm. When she forced her bleary vision to look, she found it wasn't water either. A crimson stream was running down between herself and Neon.

"Jason, you're hurt," she could barely say. He never heard her, and he never stopped. The alley beside the hotel was fast approaching, and nothing was going to stop him.

"Ah, perhaps I can give you zomethink else to vorry about? Ea, Vash da Stampede?" Frankfort aimed his fingers down into the city again. Vash looked up and could see the beam the Plant assassin used to target his victim with.

"Humm, I believe dat dis vas the lady I zaw you carryink before, correct?"

A spot centered on Meryl's chest, though she never saw it. To Vash, the world slowed to a crawl as he quickly aimed and fired his gun. Much to his shock and dismay, the bullet he had targeted for Frankfort's hand struck a field of energy, deflecting it, but also moving the pointing finger just as he fired. Meryl was safe.

Russ, who had been following the group, exploded in the street.

"NOOO!" shouted Brandywine. She stopped and ran back to him. She cradled him in her lap as he gasped. There wasn't anything she could do for him. She glared up at the mesa at the glow she could see. It looked down on her with an evil grin.

Vash emptied his gun at Frankfort in a rage. All of the bullets were stopped.

"Foolish, mein friend," the assassin said. "I only just came out of my containment vezzle… I have a reserve of energy dat can destroy you unt dis entire zide of da planet. You can not hurt me."

A bolt of energy struck Frankfort from above. He took a few steps back, not expecting such an attack. Vash looked up to see some strange flying craft peeling away – the same type that had visited him about two weeks prior.

"Ah, it was you who blew up that ship earlier tonight," Vash said as he reloaded his gun. "Well, not to say I told you so, but I think you may have kicked over a nasty hive of bees by doing that."

"Insignificant!" barked Frankfort as his wraps smoldered from the strike. "I can vithstand anyt'ing zat mosquito can dish out!"

Vash snorted. "Can you take the main course then?"

Frankfort looked at him and saw him pointing up. A break in the clouds allowed him to point his finger and see what he was referring to.

A large ship was there. It had four energy emitters glowing on its bow. He could only surmise what it was targeting.

"Zey vouldn't dare!" he said with a laugh. "Zey could hit da city at dat range!"

"Don't put them down so quickly, friend," Vash smirked. "Science has advanced a great deal since we left the Earth."

Knives drew a bead on Berlin and fired. But the Plantoid simply deflected the shot with his hand. Meanwhile, he continued to take pot-shots at Wolfwood with his other hand.

"Damn!" he complained as he dove behind a rock. "I can't hold a gun, and this idiot is simply pointing his fingers at me!"

He thought about that for a moment. "Hey, if he can do it, why not me?"

Wolfwood pointed at his target with his shooting hand. He concentrated his thoughts, his energy, and his will into his finger. In his mind he pulled the trigger.

A bolt of energy smacked Berlin on the forehead. He took two steps back and rubbed the spot that Wolfwood had struck. He gritted his teeth and sent a shower of bolts in the gunslinger preacher's direction.

"Well… hallelujah!" Wolfwood slid down the side of the rock, exhausted from the expenditure. "That was interesting!" he commented to himself as the energy drain mixed with the real rain. He was woozy and dizzy. It felt fun, so he giggled.

Then there was an explosion. He looked around the side of his rock, and saw Knives holding his gun over his own rock. The barrel was still smoking. When he looked over his stone at where Berlin had been, all he saw was oncoming rain. He slid the rest of the way down the face of his boulder and wished he could stand a cigarette.

Sara and the rest were standing still, as Brandywine placed Russ on the ground and covered his body in her outer skirt. She looked up at them with a fury in her eyes.

"Get her down there, quickly! I will take care of this," she growled.

"But," Millie started. Brandywine kicked the ground, sending a spray of mud in their direction.

"GET MOVING!" she shouted. She took the lead, rounding the corner of the alley in a trot. She gestured at the door, which slid open, and sent the group into the tunnels. She then headed for her home.

She tore off the remainder of the gown and threw on her artists jeans. She then grabbed the shot gun and stormed out.

"Ah, taking hold of the gun again?" she heard Horloge in her mind. "Let yourself free child. Feel the power within you and take out the city! Take out your vengeance! Take out the world!"

"SHUT UP BITCH!" she shouted as she stepped into the street.

"What? What are you doing?" the distant Plant asked.

"WHY DON'T YOU ASK D'TWO!" Brandywine screamed.

She raised the gun and pointed at the mesa.

"AYEE!!" Vash yelped as he looked down and saw the Angel Arm forming on the woman in the street. "Is she mad!? DON'T DO IT!"

Frankfort looked over at Vash, his mind momentarily stuck on the ship above. He only had a moment to see what he was looking at below.

The beam struck the mesa roughly ten feet below the summit. It evaporated instantly, as did Frankfort it seemed.

"She… she controlled it!" Vash gasped. "But she took his life! Damn it! Damn it all to hell! Can't this death cycle ever end!?"

"An eye for an eye," thundered in his mind. He looked down on Brandywine as she restored the arm back to the shotgun. Behind her was a gathering of town folk who stood shocked by what one of their own had done. She turned towards the body that lay in the muddy street, tossed her gun beside it and fell to her knees sobbing over Russ.

The tunnel shook from the assault above on the mesa. Small chunks of rock clanked off the iron hide of the Tunnel Steamer as the group entered the side of it. To everyone's surprise, Neon lead the way to the rear towards the engine room. Lexington watched in shock as he laid the small blood-stained body on the workbench.

Sara pulled out her scanner and began feverishly working on Miami. Meryl stood at the doorway with a bewildered look on her face, the events of the evening starting to overwhelm her. Millie though had grabbed the bulb to the regen unit and was giving it a hard twist.

Sara looked over Miami. Something was amiss. "She wasn't bleeding before – the shot sealed itself," she pondered. She looked up at Neon.

He was sweating and breathing hard. His right shoulder was torn from taking a bullet, maybe more.

"Meryl, help him!" Sara shouted, waking the Insurance Girl from her stupor. "He's been shot!"

"I'm staying here," he growled. "Do what you need to do for her." He planted his hand hard on the workbench as he attempted to hold himself up. "I won't let myself die without seeing her through this!" he ordered to himself.

Sara shook her head and swore under her breath. "Damn it, we're loosing her."

Millie was almost wrapped entirely around the bulb. "It won't come loose!" she yelled. Sara looked panicked at her as Meryl came over to assist.

"Have you got the latch released? The rod out? The flow shut? The vacuum off?" Meryl recited as she saw Lexington gesture to the components. Millie scratched her head noting that they were all done.

B.D.N. stepped over pushing the girls aside. "You're turning the bulb the wrong way," he snorted as he grasped it with both arms and twisted in the opposite way Millie had been going. He didn't even bother with the bulb's seat tray. He held onto it while the ladies placed Miami into the unit.

"Quickly!" Sara yelled as she read her scanner. "I can't get a pulse!"

Neon threw the bulb over the small woman and twisted it as hard as he could until the seal clamped shut. Sara sprang onto the controls as she watched the readings. There had not been time to get Miami out of her gown, and as energy flowed into the vessel, the fabric burned off in a fiery plume that was quickly quenched by the vacuum drives. The yellow gas was inserted as rapidly as possible as was the rod. Everyone stood back and waited for a sign.

Sara looked at the top of the bulb. A large red stain was running down its face and dripping on the floor. She looked at Neon and his badly wounded shoulder. How could he stand that pain, let alone simply stand at all?

"Anything?" he asked as if it were getting harder to breathe. Millie noticed that bubbles were now coming from the injuries. She grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and forced him to lie down.

"What… what are you doing?" he grumbled.

"You have a lung injury, mister," Millie reported in a commanding voice. "You're bleeding into your own lung. You'll drown in your own blood!" She had tears welling in her eyes as she attempted to tend to the wound.

"Millie?" Meryl asked as she came around to assist her. "How would you know that?"

She didn't look up – she simply continued to get whatever she could to stop the bleeding.

"That's how Jerry died," a voice from the doorway said. Meryl looked up to find Wolfwood standing there, a bit mussed up from his attack on Berlin. "Our forth son… gunshot wound."

Meryl clenched her face. "Oh god…" She came around the table to help her friend who was having trouble choking back the tears.

"What is the situation out there?" Sara asked as she continued to work on the regen unit.

Wolfwood sighed. "It isn't pretty… Knives took the guy out we were after. I couldn't tell if Vash got his target, but something did – the top of the mesa to the south is missing. And that girl who was following us is in the street proclaiming something about D'two being some bastard or something… This has been some night! What the situation there?"

Sara shook her head. "I'm not getting any readings… I think we've lost her."

"You can't stop trying!" Neon coughed. "Please… please keep trying!"

Sara looked over at the outlaw. He was reaching out with his arm, as if he could will the woman in the bulb his own ebbing life. She glared at the controls.

"There might be a way… she wasn't in the unit long enough before," she noted to herself. "Perhaps some of her residual energy is still in the stream…"

Neon watched as the chamber pulsed as Sara worked on the flow of energy.

"Shine baby… Shine…" he said. His arm dropped and went limp, the image of a beautiful blond haired cherub stilled behind glass in his mind.

------------------------------------

The days after the Ball were frantic to the residence of Promontory Falls. Their skyline was changed, their sheriff was dead, and many more were injured. Most of all, a popular figure in town turned out to be something they had not bargained for – and alien, at least to many of them.

Brandywine sat in her studio curled up on her bed. She had not come to the funerals. The gun she had ended the battles with lay on the floor next to her. She simply rocked back and forth.

"It's hard, isn't it?"

She raised her head from behind her knees. Vash the Stampede was sitting in a chair next to her.

She lowered her head again. "How did you deal with it?" she asked quietly.

He sighed. "As far as I can remember, I only needed to kill once. I tormented myself for days after I did it. But I found I had friends that cared for me, and who stood by me."

She laughed. "Friends? I can sense just how many friends I have… Most of the city is scared to death that I might do a July here."

Vash winced. She glanced over at him.

"Sorry," she said.

He held his hand up. "No problem… Look, I think you're blinding yourself to those who do care for you."

"Really," she said flatly.

"Really. After all, I was sent in here by someone who does still care."

Vash stood up and walked over to the door. He opened it.

"Hi BW," Bryant said. He was holding a flower. A silver star blazed on his vest pocket. He stared at her then dropped his eyes to the floor.

"I don't care what they say honey," he said. "I still love you."

"Don't forget," Vash added as he stepped out of the door, "the ticket to the future is yours to make. Don't punch it out before you know where it's going."

"Vash," Brandywine called. He turned and looked back into the studio.

She cleared her throat. "D'two wants you to suffer, you know that."

He nodded. "I think you now know how I feel then." He turned and waved. He greeted Bryant's mother, who was also waiting to see Brandywine.

"Will she be all right Mr. Vash?" she asked.

He looked back as Bryant entered the studio and smiled.

"I think her recovery just walked in. Give them a little time together." He walked over to the door at the end of the alley. A large casket was being lifted out by Dallas. Vash stepped over and placed his hand on the wood.

"You know, he said he wanted to take me on a one on one dual again – he'd be the one to finally end my wandering."

Meryl held his arm. "In the end, he did a noble deed. Miami is coming along slowly, but Sara says she will recover."

Vash grunted. "Yes, but she'll have the burning memory of the two men she cared for most in the world being gone. She will have a hard time dealing with that I fear. It's not like she wouldn't have outlived them anyway, but to loose them in such a way…"

Millie stepped out of the door wearing black. Wolfwood followed behind, his black suit already ready for a funeral. He held his wife as she wept.

Dallas had placed the casket on a caisson. Beside it stood Beremy with his arm in a sling and the remaining members of the Bad Lads. Behind them were a group of Federal Marshals all with rifles.

The city watched as the procession slowly moved down Market Street past the devastation left behind by the gun fight. Little was said. Few cared to do so. As they passed the church, North joined the procession in the lead. Vash walked with Meryl, Millie with Wolfwood, and Sara with Knives. Boston brought up the rear followed by the thomas drawn caisson and the Bad Lads. They turned down Main Street and towards the cemetery at the eastern end of town. In the daylight, the damage to the blocks behind Market Street could be seen better. The Flatlanders had managed to escape after the fight, but a cavalry unit was fast on their trail.

An elderly couple stood beside an open set of graves. They watched as the entourage entered the cemetery. A smaller casket sat waiting its mate. North walked up to them and shook their hands. He gestured back to the caisson as he talked with them. Finally he shook the man's hand and hugged the woman. He returned to the waiting group.

"The Farnsworth's were gracious enough to allow Philo's brother to be buried along side him," he announced. The Bad Lads looked a touch shocked, most of whom did not know that their boss had a brother, least alone it being Philo. The ceremonies were brief, and the Bad Lads all assisted in placing the coffins into the graves. Nearby, Sara stood by another fresh grave. The headstone had a sheriff's star etched into it. Knives stepped over to her and rubbed her shoulder.

"Such a waste," he said. "D'two must be stopped. I wish I could help."

Sara looked at the fresh dirt. "Just be ready for the trial. If we can get to him, we will have the truth behind this whole mess. I will bring him in."

Knives turned her around. She found him handing her the guns – both Vash's silver and his black isotope revolvers. "Keep these safe and out of our hands. Besides, I found I can't transform mine anymore anyway." He then looked at her.

"Be safe," he added, then kissed her. Vash and Meryl stared. Meryl thought of what she had 'overheard' before between Sara and Lexington. This was going to be just as ugly as the gunfight.

In the Steamer, Lexington felt the wave of emotions above. He dimmed slightly.

Below him sat the regeneration unit. A black cat curled up under its warm glow and purred. Miami looked down on it and touched the glass. A tear trickled down her hand and puddle at the base of the bulb.

oOo

**Next Episode**

_**Dreams**_

_**The vestiges of the waking world leaves your soul to fly within dreams of the mind.**_

_**Dreams can take you to far off places**_

_**Dreams can bring you lost loves**_

_**Dreams can be sweet, warm and caring**_

_**He called himself Roanoke the Dreamstalker**_

_**His dreams are the nightmares of our souls**_

_**He relishes them as fine caviar**_

_**Roanoke the Dreamstalker – To have him visit your dream means that you may never wake up**_

_**Next episode of TRIGUN: MOON CHILD – Chapter Eleven - Dream Master**_

_**Dream a little dream with me**_

North, GENUINE DOORKNOB ©2003 DMS – Used with permission  
All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow  
Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0311.20


	14. Dream Master

**Editor's Note: This chapter rated PG-13 for language, violence and sexual situations.**

**  
****Chapter Eleven**

TRIGUN:**  
****MOON CHILD****  
****Dream Master**

**By S. E. Nordwall**

**Edited by R. A. Stott**

With References to:

"The Angel and the Warrior – A Trigun FF" by S. E. Nordwall  
"Cowboy Bebop" (Sunrise Entertainment)  
& "The Ghatti's Tale" series by Gayle Greeno

He ran down the dusty streets, ducking behind an alley. This bounty hunter didn't seem nearly as dangerous as most he encountered on a near-daily basis.

"Just give it up, kid!" he shouted from the alleyway. "You don't want to get hurt!" Vash was gravely concerned for her safety, as he knew that soon, this entire town would be after him, now that his presence was known. He didn't want her to be caught up in any danger – the hunter was just a child.

"Wait a minute!" Vash panted to himself, "Why am I running? She _is_ just a kid!" He peeked around the corner. There he saw the strange red-mopped head of the extremely pliable child-pursuer looking in trash cans and doing a weird dance.

"Come ouuuuuuuuut, come ouuuuuuuuuut, wherever you are! You cannot escape from Ed!"

"Ah, yeah, I remember…" Vash said thoughtfully to himself, "I'm dreaming." He muttered about how his lucid dreams were getting weirder and weirder all the time. The legendary gunslinger then found himself cornered in his alley by a yapping Welsh corgi.

"Good Ein!" the strange little girl exclaimed as she skidded to a stop behind the small dog. "We got him, now! Sixty billion woolongs! Woohoo!"

"Excuse me," Vash asked, "but what's a woolong?"

"Money! Moolah! Cheese!" the kid laughed, "and Ed did it all herself!"

The dog barked.

"With the help of Ein, of course!" she added with a pixie grin. Vash grunted.

A shadow appeared behind Ed - a shadow leveling a magnum straight at her and straight at Vash. "Get down, kid!" he screamed, lunging at her and shielding her with his body. Gunfire tore the air and Vash heard no more…

"Man…" the outlaw whined, "I hate when I die in my dreams." He blinked, seeing the sky above him painted in the tangerine and crimson hues of sunset. A quick feel around himself told him that he was not in bed, but lying upon stone.

The air hit his nose sharply, smelling of rust – no, this wasn't rust, but a more familiar and terrible scent. Vash hauled himself up to discover that he was lying in blood.

He stood up and looked around, trying to find the source of the rank odor on the wind, a horrible choking death-stench. It would soon draw the buzzhawks and the flies if it hadn't already. He wanted to get away from it, to run as far and as fast as he could away from this place. He did not want to see the source of the smell. His conscience told him, however, that he should not leave whatever poor carcass lay there unburied.

Vash had encountered dead animals out in the desert at times, but a twisting feeling in his gut told him that what he was about to encounter was not an animal. Clapping his coat collar over his nose and mouth, he gathered up his courage and slowly walked around the immediate area.

His gaze was met by a row of grinning teeth. The tattered remains of an elaborate white coat covering the corpse blew in the high wind – as did the shock of blue hair that clung by thin gray flesh to the top of the skull. A fat white maggot wriggled in the right eye socket as if waving a hello. Vash fell to his knees and screamed.

"Why did you kill him?"

The voice on the wind was familiar. "No, please no…" he whispered painfully.

"Why did you kill him?!" the voice demanded. Vash saw blackness for a moment, the words printed white before his eyes as if written on a chalkboard or a screen.

"WHY DID YOU KILL HIM?!!"

Vash turned to look behind his shoulder. SHE was standing there. No… not her… anyone but her. He prayed every night for God's forgiveness, and for hers.

"Why did you kill him, Vash?" Rem said dully.

"I - I…" Vash began to speak.

"You betrayed me."

"I - I… Rem, I'm sorry, I didn't want to… Oh, Rem!"

"Vash, I cannot forgive this."

"Rem! No! Please!"

"Vash… you killed me."

"No, Rem, I -" Vash strangled on his tears. They flowed hot down his face, burning his throat and soaking his jacket.

Rem's visage began changing. Vash knew that this was not possible… she had not died that way – she had been vaporized, instantaneous cremation…

Her skin grew gray and fell from her face in clumps. Her eyes became pools of black jelly, melting away in gruesome tears down her cheeks. Flesh and clothing was torn from her in listless chunks by blowing wind. Strands of hair drifted into the air. Soon, all that was left were white bones that dropped into the sand.

"Betrayer! Murderer!" came a cry from the dry, milk-white pile. "The only penance is death!"

Vash wailed to the heavens, pulling at his hair with his hands. It was then that he heard a voice behind him, gruff and with a slight accent.

"UNTRUTH!" it cried. "Get outta here! Off with yous!"

The bones on the ground – those of both of the corpses, turned into white dust, then to black. The wind carried them in a swirling vortex until they formed into a vaguely humanoid shadow, which disappeared.

Vash whipped his head around, searching for the source of the voice. A little black cat padded up to him. The animal looked healthy, but exhausted.

"Put your mind at ease, son," it said. "She forgives you, you know that. Don't let the darkness take ya."

Vash awoke, dripping with sweat that made him shiver. He shook and clutched his arms around his chest, fingers prying at old scars and cold metal. He rocked back and forth, letting tears fall upon his blankets as he swayed to the movement of the Tunnel Steamer. Knives looked up from his bed at his brother and shook his head.

"Another one of those dreams again?" he asked as he plopped his head back down on his pillow. "When are you going to get over her?"

"This… this was different… this was… different…" he mumbled through his pain. He looked at the brass-like pendant that hung from his neck. Wasn't this supposed to prevent this sort of… attack?

Roanoke stared up at the Third Moon. His breath froze on the air. It was an unusually cold night, even for winter in this hemisphere. It was a dry, desert cold, the kind of chill that dried the nostrils and cracked the lips. The tall man rubbed his temples. His work was going well tonight – or it least it was going well until that obnoxious creature intervened. Still, the psychological damage was good.

It surprised him how easy the Stampede's mind was to manipulate. Then again, Vash was an overemotional fool who had taken a lot of trauma upon himself in life. Roanoke relished his practice in the same manner as a cat would relish playing with a catnip-stuffed mouse. Practice, simple practice was delightful, and precisely what he had needed before pursuing his real prey.

"These humans," D'two noted to himself. "They are becoming a bother."

He watched the fight that had occurred in Promontory Falls over and over in his mind. The two human women that had followed Brilliance Dynamite Neon as he had thundered down the main street of the city troubled him. They had interfered with his torment of Vash before. Now they seemed determined to do so again.

"Allow me the pleasure," a maniacal voice asked his master. "Ever since you released me, I have been practicing my torment skills on these pathetic standing corpses. I shall make the humans suffer, as I shall also the traitor Brandywine the Artist!"

D'two grinned from under the mop of golden hair that obscured his eyes. "By all means Roanoke, please do – but only those on the Steamer. I have plans for my retribution on Brandywine."

"And what of your niece?"

D'two swiveled the chair in his sphere into a laying position. "You may pester her, yes."

"Pester master? I do not pester – I warp and destroy!"

D'two sent a clap of thunder through his mind. "Pester only. I shall deal with her as well eventually. Isn't that right?" He gestured to the bulb above him with the arm that swayed. It twitched.

Shadows swam across Meryl's vision. She heard muted voices and disappointed grunts. She picked her head off a flattened pillow, letting out a stream of curses as a sudden pain hit her.

"Lie down, like back down," a calm but deeply sad voice said to her. She struggled to make her eyes focus. The blurred shape above her was vaguely familiar. The voice belonged to a man, she was sure. A strange aroma tainted the air, a scent Meryl could just barely pick out from the smell of antiseptic and blood. It smelled like gunpowder – gunpowder and just a hint of whiskey? She trained her eyes on the man again.

"Oh no, not him!" she thought. "Not that mush-for-brains, donut-crazed lunatic!"

"Good to see you awake," Vash said.

"Shove it," she told him bluntly. "Where am I?"

"A hospital just outside of Warrens City," he answered.

What the hell was she doing there? She pounded her mind to recall… oh god…

"Big guy… with a boomerang and a big metal arm?" Meryl replied, putting a hand to her forehead. "Got my leg…"

"Yes, that's right," Vash said softly. Tears were streaming down his cheeks.

"What are you blubbering about?" the small insurance agent demanded.

"The doctors…" Vash started, "They - they couldn't save your leg. I - I am so sorry…"

"Is Millie here?" Meryl asked.

"Who?"

"You know, my partner… Tall, really tall, dishwater-blond hair…"

"Partner? What are you talking about?"

"Oh, that's right," Meryl remembered aloud, "she doesn't exist in this world."

Vash stared at her, blinking once. Meryl realized what she had just said. She sat up with a start and leapt out of bed. She suddenly found herself running down a corridor walled in steel. She was extremely surprised to find that she apparently had her leg back. For the life of her, Meryl couldn't figure out where she was, what was going on, or where she was going.

Two young boys were running ahead of her, their boots making clicking noises in time to their footfalls upon the steel floor – wait a minute… steel floor? It was cold, unbelievably cold, the kind of cold felt only on the rarest night of the deepest Gunsmoke winter – a dry, desert cold. No… it was a bit colder than that. Meryl kept on running until she passed an enormous window looking out upon an expanse of night sky and immense columns of … people in glass caskets?

"Come on!" one of the little boys cried urgently to her. He turned around to face her. He looked… like Vash… Vash if he were a child. "Rem, come on!"

Meryl stood stunned. She was seeing through the eyes of someone else… reliving the principal event of her planet's history. She also knew she was doomed.

"Come on!" young Vash pleaded.

Meryl did as told. "I'm dreaming, aren't I?" she told herself… and somehow, she knew that whatever happened, she had to play out the dream. She led the two young boys to a bay filled with small craft, and bade them to get inside one of them…and it tore her heart in two to watch the boy she knew as a man crying, being abandoned. But, she knew this was just a dream – merely a dream that could not truly hurt her, right?

"Am I being shown something?" she thought. "Is Sara, Lexington, Vash's mother, or one of those other Plants showing me something? Are one of those weird 'observers' doing this?"

Meryl found herself standing at a glowing screen… it was something like she had seen inside the control centers for Plants. But this was different than any she had ever seen before though. Strange symbols played on it, and little dots of light that she somehow knew corresponded to the SEEDS fleet ships she saw outside the windows. Her fingers flew over a touch-pad, as if trained. She looked down at her left arm. Brilliant white light, as painful as the suns, surrounded her. Her arm was bones, strips of flesh flying off it, tattered like flags in a fierce wind.

Lexington spasmed. Deep within the containment unit, surrounded by yellow haze, his screams were not heard. He felt the disturbance, a terrible ripping pain, as it tore through him. He knew it was Meryl… something had happened to Meryl. He felt a presence that made his intestines twist. He tried touching the young woman's mind, but felt nothing there. He reached out to touch Sara, and found no response. He turned to Miami, then to Dallas…nothing. It was as if their minds were blocked from him or that his mental signature was blocked, trapped within the bulb just as his body was. He tried again, desperation in his heart. This was an enemy attack if there ever was one…

Millie was standing in a field of sweet meadow grass. The single sun shone down warmly on her face. She was in Oklahoma she remembered. She smiled to herself as she shook off the echoes of that other life. She had decided that Planet Gunsmoke must have been a place that only existed in her dreams – and she would have grown to actually believe that, too, if it hadn't been for little reminders that came up now and again.

Nicholas was down at Fort Supply purchasing new tack for the horses. Cattle grazed in the fenced-off pasture beyond, young calves skipping behind their mothers. Millie's arms were strong and muscular from the constant work on the homestead – then again, she had strong arms since she was a child, with the work on her family's property. She'd been busy all morning churning butter and preparing cheese. For the moment, she was watching her children at work and play.

Her oldest, Meryl, was seated in front of a huge wooden tub scrubbing clothes on a washboard, teaching her youngest, Claire, how to do it. David was making repairs to the chicken coop with Christopher. Dally and Lex rode up to her on a great black horse.

"Be careful, Dally!" Millie pleaded, "Don't be running Diamond Mane over the field like that with Lexy on! She's little and doesn't know how to hang on tight yet!"

"Aw, Ma, she's doin' just fine," Dally responded, "I was going to have Diamond Mane jump the pasture fence."

"No you don't, young man!" Millie said with a rising voice.

"But he's such a good jumper!" Dally protested, "It's almost like flying!"

"No buts! Lexy's too young, she'll fall right off!"

"Nah, she won't!" Dally insisted, "Watch!" Dally sped his steed across the meadow, headed for the cow-fence. Lex wailed, her tiny hands digging into the back of her big brother's shirt.

"Dallas Rembrandt Saverem!" Millie shouted, "You get back here this instant!"

Dally slowed Diamond Mane and trotted him back toward the tall woman. Dally knew, as all children know, that when one's mother uses one's full name, she means business. Millie pulled a crying Lex down from the saddle and held her close.

"Shhh….shhhh…" she soothed, "I won't let Dally make you jump. You're fine, you didn't fall off."

"No, Mama!" Lex said, "Dally didn't scare me, it was the monster!"

"Monster?" Millie asked. Her daughter pointed to the forest beyond the meadow. Dallas sat in Diamond Mane's saddle stock still, his mouth open and his face pale. He shivered.

Out of the woods and into the field came a strange black shape, steadily approaching them, disappearing and reappearing among the grass like a ghost. It stood like a man, but was larger than an average human being. Millie thought that whoever was approaching wasn't quite the size of some members of the Nebraska family she had met, but he was still quite formidable. As the figure came closer, Millie heard a voice – deep, rich, and almost hissing.

"You don't belong here…" it echoed. "Leave!"

"What do you mean we don't belong here?" Millie asked innocently, "This homestead belongs to my husband and me and I don't think you're a very nice man. Didn't your mother ever tell you that it's rude to scare people?"

The shadowy man stepped closer. "You are invaders," he stated. Millie finally could see his face. She screamed. The being standing before her resembled the mythic Minotaur. He was part man, part American bison. The buffalo-man was dressed in clothing made of tanned hide with elaborate stitching. It looked like Native American garb, but Millie could not tell which nation it was from.

"Leave!" the bison-Minotaur roared. "Light of skin you are, you people from across the sea. You've taken this land from my people. Thieves!"

"No, we haven't!" Millie yelped, clutching Lex tighter.

"No feel for the Earth…" the creature said. "You don't belong here, people from across the sea."

The Minotaur, to Millie's surprise, pointed to the sky. "Is bad enough that the plague of thieves come from across the water – but you come from the sea of stars…" The monster shook his great horned head. "Come to take from my people…"

"No! Please!" Millie exclaimed, "You don't understand! Nicholas and I didn't come here to steal from anyone!"

"Plagues…" the buffalo sighed, "from across the sea."

"What do you want us to do?" Millie asked.

The beast-man looked at her with eyes the color of fresh, living blood. "Die."

The light was gone, as was the pain.

Meryl found herself staring at a turquoise-colored sky filled with wispy clouds. She was lying down, but as she got up she saw no ground beneath her, just an ocean of endless blue. She wasn't in or upon water. It seemed that she was suspended upon an invisible solidity within the sky itself.

She stood looking around herself in all directions. She saw in the distance a great tree, its branches all in bloom with delicate white flowers. Beneath the tree was a slab of gray stone and upon it an unmistakably humanoid figure lay.

"Hello!" Meryl called out, "Hello? Hello! Can you tell me where I am?"

The form upon the rock rose slowly as Meryl approached. "Why, hello!" it answered back, "I wasn't expecting to see you here."

That voice! Meryl came closer and stood dumbfounded and still. She stared at the fair, angular face. The eyes were the color of brown sugar, warm and kind. Meryl began to shake. She had a strange surge within her heart, the joyful feeling of seeing an old friend, but at the same time a tremendous mortal fear, and that fear was overpowering her.

"Don't be afraid, Meryl," the woman said. "You haven't died – at least, I don't think so."

"But you're…" Meryl began, "Did I just time travel again? You're Rem! But – this isn't… this isn't… Where is this place?"

"Oh, you must be dreaming," Rem said with a gentle smile. "Come, sit down. I will explain."

Rem took Meryl's hands. Her touch was warm and felt solid, the touch of flesh rather than the touch of a specter. "I don't know how you got here, Meryl," she said, "its not exactly natural. Yes, I remember meeting you – now," Rem smiled softly. "I still hear Nova's voice sometimes…from across time. I've watched over you… as I've watched over Vash."

"Are we - ?" Meryl began, "in Heaven?"

"No," Rem stated sadly, "I trust by now you know the circumstances of my death?"

Meryl shuddered and drew back, removing her hands from Rem's grasp and placing them in her lap. "Vash told me, yes."

"When the Command Ship exploded…Plant 2 – Vash and Knives'-" Rem hesitated for a moment, "- true mother… somehow survived. Plant 1 didn't. We…went together. I believe I was caught up in the energy wake left by him and wound up here. This place… is… at least I think it is… a transition zone."

"Hmm?" Meryl raised her head.

"This place seems to be a transition zone through which the Plants draw their energy. I'm not sure what dimension this is, but I do know that they call it The Source. It is – mostly empty, but sometimes things will materialize if I desire them." Rem rose and took Meryl's hand. "Walk with me."

The two women walked over the field of blue. Flowers and grass sprang up at their feet. "Occasionally this place can be accessed by the dreaming mind," Rem said, "particularly the minds of Plants. I've spoken to Vash this way many times, though it is not completely reality or dream. I haven't been speaking to him as much lately as I used to."

Meryl stepped back from Rem and regarded her coldly. "It's not because of Legato, is it?" she accused, her voice risen and angry as she remembered what the Gung-Ho Gun had forced upon Vash. "I'll have you know-"

"No, no, no!" Rem pleaded. "There is nothing, nothing either of my sons could ever do to cause me to love them any less than I ever did..."

Meryl calmed, then questioned; "Even Knives?"

"Even Knives," Rem sighed. "It makes no sense to dwell on things past that cannot be changed. As for Vash – I've not needed to visit his dreams of late. He has learned that he must choose his own destiny. He doesn't need me anymore."

Rem faced Meryl and gently clutched her hands again. "Take care of him," she said with a broad, beautiful smile.

Meryl smiled back. "I will," she replied, then stated, "So… you've been in this place for over one-hundred and thirty years?"

Rem's face became downcast. She looked to the "ground" with sad eyes. "Yes," she said. "I'm trapped here until some things are reconciled – until a way can be opened for me. I cannot move on – to Heaven… until then." She sighed heavily. "I am lonely."

Meryl hugged the taller woman. To her surprise, Rem cried into her shoulder, silver tears spilling onto her white over-cape. "It's alright," Meryl soothed, "Because of you… I exist."

"Thank you," Rem said shakily, separating from Stryfe. "I'm sorry about that."

"It's perfectly okay," Meryl replied, "You needed it."

"I miss people," Rem said.

"Alex," Meryl stated.

Rem smiled through wet eyes and nodded. "Sometimes… I find myself forgetting what his face looked like – then I look down upon Vash. There are differences… but he looks so much like him."

Meryl nodded, remembering their meeting at the Thornton Air Force Base. She looked around, watching the clouds. Rem cleared her throat to get her attention, and then took her hand, depositing something shining on a thin chain into her palm and pressing her fingers over it. "I want you to have this," she whispered.

"Hallo, Rem!" a voice behind them greeted. Both women turned around. Meryl was astonished to find a little black cat behind them. She looked around for the source of the voice then narrowed her eyes at the cat as it bathed its hindquarters with its tongue. Meryl did not like cats much. It seemed to her that in her travels with Vash the Stampede that black cats were stalking them, bringing them bad luck. She would see at least one in every town they stayed in, and sometimes she'd see felines out in the wild desert, too. Always, it seemed, trouble would follow after one would show up.

"Hello, N'ya!" Rem exclaimed brightly, walking to the cat and picking it up. "Where have your travels taken you this time?"

To Meryl's utter disbelief (she was giving Rem an odd look by this point), the animal spoke. It was the very same voice she had heard behind her, destroying her previous assumption that a Plant had been there with them.

"Here an' there," the cat said, "Many things have been happening on Gunsmoke… and how have you been, Miss Rem? Oh, we gots ourselves a guest!"

"Did that - did that -" Meryl stammered, "cat just-"

"Oh!" Rem giggled, "I'm sorry… Meryl, this is N'ya. N'ya, this is Meryl."

"Ah, Meryl!" N'ya meowed, its whiskers twitching, "I knows her. Pleased ta meet ya all formal-like."

"Uh…" Meryl said.

"N'ya is…special," Rem attempted to explain. "He is… an agent of sorts, a keeper of truth."

N'ya smiled at Meryl. Meryl scratched her head.

"He's able to travel between here and your plane freely."

"Not alone, either," the cat said, licking his nose, "There are others like me."

"I believe…" Rem began, setting the animal down, "you told me once of a planet an after-SEEDS group settled where truth-cats openly partner with humans?"

"Yep!" N'ya purred, "Though those ones ain't what I am exactly and Gunsmoke's far from ready for somethin' like that." He winked at Meryl. "Oh, don't get yerself too excited. Not all the cats on your world are…agents, not at all! Most are just plain ol' ordinary critters. Oh, don't look surprised! You've had'ta wonder why there were black cats following you around, haven't you?"

"Ummmm…" Meryl cautiously replied, "I guess so."

N'ya looked up at Rem and his expression turned serious. Meryl slapped herself on the forehead. She had to be dreaming.

"There's danger, Rem-"

He was cut off as Rem turned her gaze to the north. A shadow appeared as if out of a veil of mist. It was a man in an Air Force jump suit.

"Alex?"

"Rem! It's been a long time."

Miami struggled against the broad body of the figure looming over her. He held her down, grabbing her thin wrists fiercely and slamming her back into the hard-packed earth.

"Goin' nowhere…" he said to her.

Miami was completely naked and the man above her only a shadow. The light around her was dim, the five moons in crescents against the inky sky. Her strong captor leaned over her, his tongue wetly caressing her neck, her chest, and regions she would rather not think about. She screamed, but her throat constricted and was sore and burning.

"Scream any more and I'll crush your windpipe."

She kicked furiously, hoping, hoping she would hit the man in a place that would hurt him badly enough to surprise him, then maybe she could get away… Pain struck her shins as the shadow-figure planted his rough, bony knees firmly upon her legs, pinning her down. She felt the warmth of a palm and the tickling sensation of fingers slide up her right thigh. He started prying her legs apart.

Miami thrashed. "No…" she begged, "please… don't!" If only she were stronger, she thought. She was so petit and weak - this man so much larger and stronger than she was. If only she could scream… and be answered.

"Relax…" the man sneered, "I'm not going to do anything to you yet. 'Little foreplay's always been my style." The faceless man leaned over her, his breath hot upon her cheek, and with a strange, spicy odor.

"You're not Philo, you're not Jason…" Miami whispered, "I - I don't know you. Who are you?!"

"A friend, my little one, a friend." Miami winced as he licked her left earlobe.

"They do this to you…" he continued. "They'll do this to you… This is what they do to your kind -"

"Who? Who will do what to me?"

"The humans," the shadow stated. "To them, you are only property," He slammed her into the dirt again as she struggled and caressed the inside of her left thigh. "They will take advantage of you… use you until you are nothing but a dried husk. I am a manifestation of them. I am Humanity."

"You lie!" Miami spat.

"Come now, my little one, you know it is the truth."

Meryl stared at the man approaching them from what seemed to be oblivion. Rem ran and threw her arms around him. She wept joyfully into his broad chest. "Alex! Alex! Alex!"

Meryl could do nothing but look on, completely ignored. She heard a low feline growl.

"Untruth! Untruth! Untruth!"

"What?" Meryl questioned as she turned her gaze to N'ya at her feet, the fur on the back of his neck and shoulders standing up in a fashion to rival Vash's hairdo. His tail looked like a bottlebrush and his claws were bared.

"How-?" Rem asked her lover, giving him some breathing room after their long embrace, "How are you here?"

"A way, Rem! A way has been made! You can come with me to Heaven now."

Rem turned to Meryl. "Isn't this wonderful?" she said, tears glistening on her cheeks, "I can go home now!"

"How do I get back?" Meryl asked urgently.

Alex ignored her as Rem hugged him again. "I suppose… all you have to do is wake up," she said.

N'ya hissed. "Rem, that's not who you think it is! Look harder, look harder!"

"What is that - cat - talking about?" Alex asked, looking utterly perplexed.

"Oh, that's N'ya," Rem laughed. "He's a friend."

"Obnoxious little cat. Come on." The young man grasped Rem's hand and they started walking northward.

Rem hesitated. "Something doesn't… feel right… about this," she said.

"Nonsense!" Alex chuckled. "Come on before the door closes."

"We can't let her go!" N'ya desperately cried to the Insurance Girl. "You'll be killed!"

"What?" Meryl exclaimed. At this moment she realized that Alex had ignored her the entire time, as if he had not even seen her there. He had only seen the cat…

"That's not Rem's Alex!" N'ya explained. "He's a deceiver! He's a Plant and he's trying to do an illegal transfer! He's not taking her to Heaven, he's trying to take her to the living plane! To do that… with you here… it will destroy you!"

Meryl blinked. "How?" she asked.

"No time to explain the how of it!" N'ya caterwauled. "We have to keep her from going through whatever door this guy has created or it will kill you! Listen… you are indeed dreaming, Meryl, but if she passes into the living world with you here, your mind… your soul…"

"But if I'm only dreaming-"

N'ya bit her ankle. "Snap out of it! The body cannot live without the mind and you're in mortal danger! Stop her! Stop her!"

"I'm not so sure about this, Alex…" Rem said, wringing her wrist in his grip, "I think I would have heard something from… someone else… and something about you…. You're not Alex! Let me go!"

"Nah, you're coming with me, little lady!" 'Alex' growled, pulling the long-haired woman forward. Both Meryl and Rem noticed that he had grown a long braid that trailed down his back and that his teeth were sharp and jagged. His eye color had changed from an almost-violet to a deep cerulean blue and he had grown stubble.

N'ya leapt for him, meowing and hissing. The stranger deflected him with his free arm. The throw seemed effortless but the man now had three large, angry-red and bleeding scratches marring his skin. N'ya recovered himself and leapt for him again, this time, for an ankle, but was kicked away.

"Little kittens aren't going to stop me!" he laughed - a dark, cruel sound not at all matching the voice of Alex. He twisted Rem's wrist in his grip as she struggled to get free and grabbed her other arm.

"Who are you?" Meryl demanded. "Leave her alone!"

"So sorry to not give a proper introduction, my ladies," he sneered. "The name's Roanoke - Roanoke the Dreamstalker. I have nothing personal against either of you. I'm just performing my mission."

"You're a… you're a Plant!" Rem gasped with astonishment.

"Yes I am dearie," Roanoke replied. "You're used to 'good' Plants, aren't you? Your will-less obedient little slaves! I'm of a different breed. I am a Neo-Gung-Ho Gun! Come!"

"Let go of me!"

Meryl stood deciding. Then, she reached under her cape and pulled out two Derringers. She unloaded them into Roanoke – and into Rem. She grabbed another pair and did the same. Roanoke screamed and let go of his captive, his form becoming hazy and a black mist surrounding him.

"My concentration! You wench! You may have saved yourself, but you will not be able to save your friends!"

In swirl of black cloud, Roanoke disappeared. Meryl ran to the fallen form of Rem on the ground. Rem slowly got up, dusting herself off and examining her person. She was completely unhurt.

"You shot right at me…" she said, "Right into me… how did you know that the bullets would pass right through?"

"I don't know," Meryl replied. "Somehow, I just knew to fire… I think N'ya told me somehow… in my mind… I knew that on some level, Roanoke had a body somewhere, and was using his energy to be here – and you…

"I'm… already dead," Rem finished for her.

N'ya knew the true reason why the bullets didn't harm Rem, but now wasn't the time to explain it. He stood with his back to the women, staring out into oblivion. "I sense…" he began, "I sense… that jerk is in the minds of… he's manipulating… Miami and Millie…"

"Millie!" Meryl screamed. "If he's after Millie I have to stop him!"

"Come with me," N'ya said. "I can pass between realms… and I can make a way for you into her dream. It is dangerous… but I have to get to Miami and I cannot be in two places at once! It's the only way to stop that guy, I'm afraid. You aren't awake yet, so that means something… grasp my tail."

"Sorry to be leaving so rudely like this!" Meryl said to Rem as she did as told by the cat. He flinched as she snagged his tail in her hand.

"Go, Meryl. Go save your friend. Go save my great, great, great, great grandmamma."

Meryl and N'ya disappeared in a flash of white light.

Miami squirmed, scraping her elbows on small sharp stones as she tried to crawl away from her captor. She kicked him, she tried to hit him, she even bit him a few times – and fiercely enough to draw blood – but nothing she did freed her from his strong grip. She tried concentrating energy on him. She tried to burn the palms of his hands this way. She tried to send a sting into his mind. Each time she tried to use the powers of her heritage, she found them deflected or contained.

The shadowy man kissed her, biting her lips cruelly. He then laughed in a low voice and licked her bare stomach. Miami heard a metallic sound, a chinking noise. He had taken off his belt.

"You taste good…" he hissed, pressing his hands against her thighs, "Time to open up!"

The man spasmed and fell back with a loud "Aaaaaaaaaarrrraaaaah!" He stood and turned around, his back to Miami. She saw dark lines of blood dribble down his bare back in the dim moonlight. He had momentarily forgotten his prey. Miami took her opportunity. She scrambled through the dirt, found her footing, and ran.

"Damned little beast!" the dark figure roared. "I'll ring your neck, skin ya alive and have your pelt for my hat!"

"Just try it!" a voice that was strange to Miami chided. "Miami, my lady – the rifle on your right!"

"What?" she asked. She glanced down and saw a long-barreled deer rifle and a large blanket. She grabbed the blanket and covered herself, then took the gun into her hands. She looked to where her captor was – he was creating streams of light and aiming them at the ground nearby. He wasn't "Humanity" - he was a Plant! Dodging the small volleys of blue-white lighting was a small green-eyed black cat.

"Only you can defeat him!" the animal shouted. "This is not real! You are dreaming! This man has been manipulating your mind. I am stalling your tormentor, but you must be the one to end the dream! Your mind conjured that rifle. I broke the Dreamstalker's control over you just long enough for you to imagine that firearm. You must use it to break his concentration!"

"How?!" Miami pleaded.

"Shoot him!"

"What? I can never kill anybody -"

"I didn't say kill, I said shoot!" N'ya cried as he dodged another volley from the irate Plantoid. "That rifle represents the power of your will – your will to break his control. Use it!"

Miami's hands trembled as she aimed the gun at the man with the long blond braid. Roanoke turned from his battle with N'ya to glare and hiss at Miami. "Yer not getting away, my dearest little one. Put down that ugly thing. I was only illustrating a truth you know in your heart. The humans – they'll do that to you. You are a battery. You cannot get away."

Miami slowly squeezed the trigger, unsure of herself. She was shaking and did not know if her aim was true. The braided man screamed and the world around her exploded into brilliant white.

The young Plant thrashed and kicked her bed, throwing off her blankets, screaming and grabbing her sheets. She felt a hand on her shoulder holding her down. It was warm and gentle, not at all like the Dreamstalker's. A familiar voice whispered to her. It was the voice of Sara.

"It's okay now, you're awake. Shhh… shh."

Miami immediately calmed. She looked up at the security officer and took deep breaths. "I'm… really awake, aren't I?" she said, looking around herself. She pulled her blankets off the floor and clutched them over her chest, feeling not sufficiently covered by her thin white nightgown. "It was… a horrible nightmare…"

"It was more than that," Sara said. "We've been under attack from one of the Neo Gung-Ho Guns."

"Dreamstalker?" Miami asked.

"Yes," Sara replied. "Roanoke the Dreamstalker… he was trying to drive us mad. I realized what was going on in my dream when – when…" she shook her head. "I - I can't talk about it… but I realized what he was and made him tell me his name before I woke up. All those…evil smileys…" The officer shuddered.

Miami hugged Sara. "Cat," she whispered. "A cat saved me."

"Huh?"

"Never mind. I'm just… glad that it's over… at least for now."

Miami saw a shadow move in the dim light cast by her table lamp. The pet that she had been keeping with her walked past the edge of her bed. "Little black cat…" she sighed, letting Sara rub her back in a gesture of comfort. Her pet turned and simply meowed, walking to his half-full food bowl. Silently, Miami wondered.

Millie screamed and cried, frightened and inconsolable. "Nicholas! Don't die! Not again! Please don't die again!"

"H-honey…" Nicholas D. Wolfwood-Saverem strangled, leaning on the tall, strong form of his wife, his warm blood spilling onto her front. He had been shot several times through the stomach just like – Millie shuddered again … the last time. She held him up and stepped slowly backwards toward the house, trying to ease him inside. Beyond her stood a man in an undertaker's outfit with creepy red-colored artificial lens-devices over his eyes. Behind the undertaker was a man in a white jacket. Millie knew him.

"You're supposed to be dead!" she screamed at Legato Bluesummers, then thought better of it. "You…you… you don't even exist yet! What are you doing here?"

The buffalo-man, standing far off, to her right side, grunted. His crimson eyes sparkled. "The plagues shall be no more," it said. Somehow, the beast had summoned to the homestead the full contingent of the old Gung-Ho-Guns.

"Nicholas, Nicholas…" Chapel the Evergreen sneered. "Did I not teach you well enough? You had your guns, why didn't you protect your family? Why did you fail?"

Nick coughed violently, sending a river of blood onto his wife's chest. "Don't listen to him…" she cried. "We'll get you inside… we'll get the doctor… don't worry, don't worry…"

"J-Jerry…" he whispered. Then he grew completely slack in Millie's arms.

"NO!" Millie screamed. "Don't do this to me! Don't do this to me again!" She shook him, but he was already gone.

Earlier, their teenage son, Jerry had come riding into the meadow, slumped in the saddle, struggling to keep consciousness with a bullet hole in his upper chest, the victim of a violent drunk out at Fort Supply whom he had inadvertently angered. Millie remembered that scene – but it was all wrong… in this time, with her other children the ages they were, Jerry was only eight years old. He had been playing down by the creek. Millie shook her head and again screamed.

The rest of her children, David and Christopher who had been working on the chicken coop, Meryl and Claire who had been washing clothes, and Lex - lay as bleeding corpses in the meadow and in the cow pasture. Dally was hanging from the tall oak next to the house from a long noose. A huge man in a tight-fitting suit with a mask on his face resembling the visage of a snake was laughing at the corpse and pulling on the other end of the rope. Diamond Mane the stallion lay in bleeding chunks while a thin man wearing something like a huge round spiked-shell continued to fire the daggers from it into the scattered flesh and scarlet ground.

The bison-Minotaur glared at Millie and handed her a small pistol. "Despair…" he hissed. "There is only one way out of this. You know what you must do…"

"No!" came a cry from across the meadow.

"Put the gun to your head… and end it all!" the Minotaur laughed.

"Don't do it! Don't do it! Millie! This isn't you!"

"Meryl?"

Millie felt a surge of joy sweep through her as she saw her short work-partner across the field. "Meryl? What are you doing here?"

"This isn't real, Millie! You're dreaming!"

"Huh?"

"Do it!" the buffalo screamed. "Despair! Despair! All you love are gone! Only you can end your pain!"

"Shut up!" Meryl shouted firing a round from one of her Derringers into the beast's left shoulder. "Millie, we are being attacked! You are back on Gunsmoke in your bed… we are with Dallas, Lexington, Miami, and Officer Sara! We are being attacked by one of the Neo Gung-Ho Guns!"

"Nicholas…" Millie began, staring at the gory body at her feet.

"That's not him, Millie! This is a deception! Come to me, I'll get you out of here!"

"Merylllllllll!" Millie cried, holding up her long calico dress and running to her friend. She felt a searing pain in her right leg and right shoulder. She turned around briefly, only to see behind her a blond child she recognized as "Zazie the Beast" with two smoking pistols in his hand. She fell into the tall grass.

"It's not real!" Meryl shouted. "He's not real! Get up, Millie! It's just a dream! Just realize that you haven't really been shot!"

"I can't Meryl! It hurts!"

"Millie! Please! I don't want you to die!"

The bison-man let loose a howl of demented delight.

"Roanoke! You bastard!" Meryl growled as she unloaded two more Derringers into his chest, then grabbed another pair and did the same. By the time she had grabbed another set, the creature's wounds had sealed themselves up.

"You cannot save her!" he roared with glee. "Only one person can save her! Do it, Millie! Take your life and end your pain!"

"NO!" Meryl cried. "If you do this Millie… if you do this… I'll never forgive you!"

"Merylllll…" Millie cried forlornly. Then, she gritted her teeth and a look of pure determination came across her face. She picked herself up off the ground, her bleeding wounds healing themselves as she did, and ran to Meryl.

When Millie reached her partner, she gripped her in a tight embrace. "Oh, Meryl! Oh Meryl!" she cried, "It really is you! And this is just a nightmare!" She glared at the bison-man. "It's not nice to mess with other peoples' dreams!"

"Let's go," Meryl said. The world disappeared in a whirl of white mist.

Meryl sat up with a start in her bed. She gasped, her skin covered in a cold sweat. She got her bearings and realized that she was back in the real world. She was in her warm two-piece blue pajamas. She ripped the blanket off herself and ran out of her room to Millie's bedroom. "Millie! Millie!" she cried.

"Mill-ie?" she panted as she came to the entrance of her partner's private room. She saw Millie there, sitting upright in her bed, surrounded by Dallas, Sara, and Miami.

"Meryl!" Millie cried. Meryl went to her and Millie threw her long arms around her, weeping tears of joy.

"I'm so glad you're okay!" Meryl sighed in joyful exhaustion.

"You saved me, Meryl!" Millie wept, rubbing the smaller woman's shoulder.

"Is everyone okay?" Meryl asked, looking around the room.

"Yes," Miami shakily said, with Sara rubbing her shoulder.

"What about Lexington?" Meryl inquired.

"He's okay," Sara replied. "I checked on him. He felt the attack, but wasn't a victim himself. He tried to contact us but was blocked. This… Roanoke, as he calls himself, is indeed a powerful opponent. Almost drove me to…" She shuddered. "I-I can't talk about it."

"I don't think any of us wants to talk about it," Millie said. Meryl rubbed her back.

"Its okay, Millie," she said. "It wasn't real."

"But it was so…" Millie sighed.

"I know… I know," Meryl replied. "But, somehow, I don't think he'll be coming back anytime soon. I think… our enemy underestimated us.

"Indeed," Sara nodded with a sigh. A single tear slid down Miami's right cheek as she clung to Dallas' hand.

"Ow, I think there's something in your pocket, Meryl," Millie said, as she rubbed her chest where she had held her friend. "That pocket on the front of your pajamas. I felt something hard when you hugged me. Are you keeping your ammunition in there?"

"Huh?" Meryl asked, patting herself down. She felt something strange in the pocket above the right breast of her pajamas. When she was getting ready for bed, she usually stuck her toothbrush in there on her way to the sink. She thought maybe she had left it in there, but the object she pulled out of the pocket utterly surprised her. She gasped and jumped back. It dangled from its chain on her fingers.

"Wherever did you get that, Meryl?" Sara queried, "That's a SEEDS officer's badge – of the ancient style."

Meryl scrutinized the pendant closely. It was the shining thing Rem had handed to her in her dream, the thing that she wanted her to have. She stared at it and wondered.

"Vash!' she yelped looking out the door. Sara placed her hand on her shoulder.

"Neither Vash or Knives, or Mr. Boston for that matter, seemed bothered by all this," she said. "Maybe the Doorknobs protected them." They returned to ponder the shining gift in the Insurance Girl's hand.

Knives looked about and laughed. "Oh come now…"

Roanoke looked at him with a puzzled look. "What? This is supposed to be your worst fear…"

He walked up to the Neo Gung-Ho Gun and laid a solid punch into his stomach. He reeled back and fell to the ground cursing and coughing.

N'ya sat down and watched this with amusement. "Interesting turn of events. The Dreamstalker is being stalked?" he whispered to himself.

"You fool," Knives grumbled. "This is not MY fear… this is hers!"

Sara appeared beside him. She held one of Sandusky's shot guns in her hand.

"But… but you can't deny me…" the nightmare thief spat. "You fear this!"

Knives looked back. The giant plant bulb sat with a stupid grimace painted across it. He snorted.

"You confuse me with your master, Roanoke," he snidely said. "He left a piece of himself within my mind and you read it. This is HIS fear as well – though he's responsible for it you know…"

"WHAT!?"

Knives bent down and grinned at him. "If he hadn't blasted Detroit the way he did, they would never have painted a smiley on Cindy's bulb, or any of the others. And since you're pointing out one of HIS fears, I think you'd better be ready for a nasty reception when you return to base…"

Roanoke swallowed.

Knives stood back up and placed his hand on Sara's shoulder.

"If – you return to your base that is," he added. She then converted the gun into an Angel Cannon and pointed it at the Dreamstalker.

D'two laughed as he heard the blast in his mind.

On a cold rock in the middle of nowhere, a man fell face down. He gasped for air.

"Roanoke," a voice said to him.

"M-master?" he squeaked.

"Report to me."

He sat up. The ground was cold, as was his gun that he placed against his head.

"I said report to me, not end your life."

He looked into the dawn sky. "Master?"

A chuckle greeted him. "You did not fail, my dear Roanoke," D'two said. "Report to me."

He stood up. He did not fail? The people were still alive, or not mad… where had he not failed?

oOo

Next Episode

_**Revenge is never just **_

But in these times, to some, revenge is all they have.

The clap of thunder, the flash of light - the world is forever changed in a single spark of revenge

Some say revenge is a means to right a wrong

To others, revenge is cold and thoughtless

Today, a city lays in ruins

All for the revenge against one person.

Next Episode of TRIGUN: MOON CHILD - Chapter Twelve - Thunder from the Skies

As written, revenge is best served cold.

Characters from TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow  
Ed, Ein, Cowboy Bebop ©2003 Sunrise Entertainment/BanDai Visual  
Diamond Mane/Nightwatch, GENUINE DOORKNOB ©2003 DMS – Used with permission  
Characters from MOON CHILD ©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project – Used with permission  
Roanoke the Dreamstalker ©2003 S. E. Nordwall – used with permission

_**WRITER'S ENDNOTES**__: All characters and concepts from Trigun are Copyright Yasuhiro Nightow, JVC Entertainment, etc. No money is being made off this, and no harm to intellectual property intended. The characters Ed and Ein belong to the anime Cowboy Bebop, which is owned by Sunrise Entertainment. Again, no money is being made for me from this and no harm is intended. _

Minor concepts inspired by "The Ghatti's Tale" book trilogy, which belongs to author Gayle Greeno. Again, no money being made, no harm intended. – To explain to those who have not read the books, "The Ghatti's Tale" is a three novel story (and two supplemental novels which I have yet to read), about a planet inhabited by the descendants of a stranded space mining crew. The descendants, over the course of 230 years have built a somewhat medieval society, being distrustful of too much technology. On this planet, there is a group of humans partnered through mind-bonds with members of a native race of telepathic cats who have the ability to read the truth. Together, these humans and the cats travel around mediating legal cases – like foolproof lie detectors and judges. The ghatti, however, unlike the Kuroneko in this story, do not speak (to humans) aloud, but only in the mind, and tend to be the size of lynxes. The books are very good, and I recommend them to fellow fans of fantasy, especially those, who like me, like cats.

I gave the Kuroneko of this story-chapter a ghatti-style name. In the books, bond paired ghatti are named similarly to feline vocalizations, often with an apostrophe in the name. As Kuroneko in the Trigun anime says "Nyao!" or "Nya", "N'ya" was a natural choice for a name . _**- S. E. Nordwall**__  
_

_**EDITOR'S ENDNOTES**__: Well now – this was great! These stories are here in the first place because of Miss Nordwall, who enlightened me about TRIGUN (IE: YOU MUST SEE THIS SERIES!! __**YOU JUST MUST!!**__). Well this was only fair – I had dropped Ah! My Goddess and You're Under Arrest on her, and we had a mutual liking to Evangelion, so having her say that I MUST see Trigun was only natural._

_I came – I saw – I bought the DVDs._

_I had met with Stacey via our love of FanFiction – she is a dynamite writer, and she was fond of my Lugia Chronicles series I did for Pokémon. So when the TRIGUN bug was let loose, my first inkling was to start a new series that followed the anime, specifically the time after the end of the anime. So for those keeping up with the series, remember, this is for my Stacey. Enjoy it, but it's all hers._

_When she came and asked to do a story for the series, you bet I jumped at it. She blesses my work by wanting to be in it as well, and I thank her for her contribution. Hopefully there may be more! ;-) – __**R. A. Stott**_

©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0311.22


	15. Thunder from the Skies

**Chapter Twelve**

**TRIGUN:  
MOON CHILD  
Thunder from the Skies**

**By R. A. Stott**

_- From an Official Observer's Report – Star Date 07294.1 - _

The confusion created early in the settlement of the planet known to the locals as Gunsmoke (Deneb One to the Federation) has caused some unique naming of towns across it. This has also caused some squabbles and minor uprisings. The most notable of these was that of the towns on either end of the Promontory Flats, who both claimed the name PROMONTORY for themselves.

The confusion was created by the fact that the ships that created these cities had deflected against each other as they descended. They made planetfall on either end of the vast open plain titled PROMONTORY on the auto map the computers on Alpha Ship had broadcast to all mainframes just prior to what the settlers describe as 'The Great Fall.' When city titles were issued by the early local governing bodies, both surviving groups chose the name of the flats as their own, thus starting a dispute, which eventually ended up in a minor war between the rival towns. It took the intervention of the freshly created cavalry to bring peace to the two feuding groups and settle the argument. The city on the eastern end of the wasteland was allowed to keep the single name of Promontory. The town on the western side was renamed Promontory _Falls, in reference to an artesian waterfall that would pour salty water over the southern mesa once every seven years. _

As it was, the Falls would wind up being the larger of the two cities, as the waters that the geyser drew would bring people in droves to the large basin it formed when it would flow. The geyser was created actually from the impact of the town's central ship as it burrowed into what had been originally a long single mesa. The deeper parts of ship Epsilon 74-672 Geo 9 were completely submerged within the pocket of water that was being held in the area surrounding the mesa. It was the exploration of this aqueduct was why our team was underground when the events of two days ago occurred. Salvage teams and divers were within the structure at zero hour.

Sara watched the report roll over the screen. Now The Observers were being involved in this dirty little war that she found herself in. One of their ships had been shot down by the sniper the night of the Ball. Another of their ships assisted in the attack on the same sniper, before Brandywine had taken him out. And now this...

Brandywine the Artist – Sara pondered if she had been remiss at not pursuing her further. Vash had suggested that letting her be for the time being would probably be for the best. She had her boy friend, his mother, and those who were not scared of her for support.

"They say time heals all wounds," he said.

"Oh, you're one to talk," had Meryl scolded him.

But what happened yesterday… She should have known that it would occur. That was why they were originally heading for Olympia City. But a visitor to the Tunnel Steamerhad halted their trip.

"He's sooooo cute!" Millie squealed.

"I'm soooo not that cuddly," the furry man-beast said as he entered the Steamer.

"Mr. Kinza!" Vash had exclaimed. "What brings you here?"

Sara had known that aliens were with the observers. The appearance of the Tomassamassa was a shock, but not a surprise. That was left to Meryl to jump and scream at the sight of the tiger/bear like creature in a space suit.

"Eeek," he blandly said out of the side of his mouth as he glared at her. "I'm here to see the Officer," he then noted to them. "Why are you three still here?"

Vash, Knives and Boston looked at one another. "Well, we were taking advantage of the Steamer, that's all," Vash said with a cockeyed smile. "They were heading for Olympia City, which takes 100 iles off our trip… so…"

Kinza nodded. "Hey, no problem - But there's a situation right now that I must talk with Officer Montgomery right now in private. To stay here might delay your trip to Alpha Base."

Sara shook her head. Vash, Knives and Boston had left earlier that day, resuming their trip across the Promontory Valley towards the site of Alpha Base, leaving the Steamer and their friends behind. Kinza had told them that the Steamer should continue on as well, as he had his own transport that he wished the Officer to board. He would bring her back as soon as they had completed what he was there for.

She resumed the report playback.

"_Promontory Falls – Promontory_ _Falls_ – _come in!"_ the report yelped. The image of a room in town flickered to life. It seemed to be in a church.

"_North here,"_ the preacher she had met the night of the Ball said as he stood before the camera.

"_Red Alert!_ _Evacuate the base – repeat, evacuate the base! Incoming fire - your location!" _

"What?" North barked. "_What are you talking about? I have men down in the ship! Raise the defensive shields!" _

"_No time!"_ a reply said. "_Prepare for emergency transport!" _

"_Negative Forrestal, I will not abandon this city,"_ he said as he started pounding on a hidden console that had appeared out of the pulpit. "_I will protect these people!" _

"_Sir,"_ another voice said. "_He's raised shields!" _

"_Robert, you don't have enough energy to stop what's coming!"_ the first voice yelled.

The preacher smiled. "_You know me Roy, I can get out of worst situations!"_

Sara watched the monitor as the windows in the church started to be illuminated by a blinding light. In a small screen at the bottom of the main view, she saw an image from something called SAT-67-4B. It showed the planet from high up. She saw 8 beams of energy curving across the globe, all heading for Promontory Falls.

Brandywine woke up that morning and looked down at her waist. Bryant lay curled there, his head on her belly. Outside her window, the light that should have been only shadows were gone, replaced with an oven-like radiance. She placed her hand on Bryant's head and slowly slipped out from under him, allowing his sleep to continue undisturbed.

She stepped outside with her shotgun and looked up.

"Ah, the one who sinned upon me," the voice of D'two rang through her head. "It is time to repent, sinner."

She cocked the gun and held it over her head. She formed the angel arm and pointed it towards a spot in the sky she expected the first one to come from.

"I'll be damned if you're going to take my home, bastard!" she yelled as she fired. Her beam struck the oncoming energy and deflected it skywards.

She smiled and readied a second shot for the next beam. But as she did, the mesa behind her exploded in a rain of stone as two of the rounds coming from the west struck home. She fired and deflected another beam coming down from the north, but the remaining four struck almost simultaneously. The shield held only briefly then collapsed over the city.

The shuttle spun about in a circle pattern. Sara looked out of the window to her side and saw what was left.

Unlike the destruction of July and Augusta, where the wreckage was crumbled and heaped everywhere, the northern section down to the center of Promontory Falls was simply gone – flattened to dust. A crater was left towards the center of town. Two of the mesas were half the size they started at, and the only movement seemed to be from small craft and a few people moving across the landscape. She searched for where the church had been, and found that was pretty much where the crater was.

Towards the south of town, some buildings still stood, at least in part. She could see that the hotel was still there, but the back side that had the entrance to the tunnels was gone. From what she could tell, rock from the exploding mesas buried some of the area. She grimaced as Kinza brought the craft down towards the middle of the main hole.

"Were there any survivors?" she asked her pilot. Kinza grunted.

"There were, but everyone that came out of it is either injured or won't last long. If you notice on any of those buildings that made it through the strikes, none of their windows are intact, or have the sides of them caved in. The blasts put out a whopper of a concussion strike. I've never seen so many blown eardrums…"

"What of Brandywine?" Sara asked. "Pastor North?"

Kinza opened the hatchway. "The Plantoid Delta 201 of Brandywine, Delaware," he spoke into a com unit as he stood up.

"Plantoid 201 is currently at coordinates 145.624 mark 16. 12.5 miles south – southwest of the city of Promontory Falls," a computerized voice stated.

"We found her there a few hours ago, but she won't let us near," he noted to the officer. "As for Captain North…" He looked over his shoulder at Sara, who noted the reference to the man's rank. "…Well, you saw the report. He has been in worse spots and survived those incidents… but unless he got down into the area of the excavation, then we may have lost him… not to mention that even if he did get down there, there's little air available down there – it's mostly water…"

Sara stood in the center of a city that just a few days prior, she would have been standing in the middle of a busy street. Save for a few buildings south of her and the remains of the mesas, she could see the horizon any direction she looked. Even the headstones of the cemetery were missing.

A man stepped around the shuttle, his head wrapped in bandages. He wore a uniform of one of the people working around them, but it was a bit frayed, as if it had been in the explosions as well. He handed Kinza a PADD device and nodded to Sara.

"Burnside, isn't it?" she asked him. "You were the manager of the hotel…"

"And an operative with Captain North, yes," he said. "It is good to see you again, Officer."

"Should you be standing?" she asked him, watching his attempt to stay on his feet. He shuffled his steps and smiled.

"The stimulants are starting to wear off, that's all," he sheepishly said. "I've got to see the doctors before we go off to find BW."

Sara looked at Kinza, then back at Burnside. She nodded.

"I was wondering just why I was being brought back here," she said.

"I was going to ask you," Kinza said while giving Burnside a glaring look.

"Want to make it a threesome?"

Kinza spun about. North was standing there leaning on his pulpit. He then keyed a few controls on the face of the podium.

"Attention rescue personnel… clear the area of Market and Main Streets," he said over the communications systems. "Doctors and medical teams standby at the hotel."

Kinza stepped over to the man and punched him in the arm. "What the hell did you do, you mad scientist?" he half snarled, half laughed.

North rubbed his shoulder and wryly grinned. "I used the energy from the first blast to activate my emergency transmats."

Kinza looked about the pulpit. "But - there's no place to store what I think you have to store here - you don't have any escape pods here…"

"Pardon?" Sara asked.

Kinza looked at the officer. "We use a series of devices that can store a person in a storage shunt-like device in the case of an emergency evacuation aboard a ship these days… but they're a bit bigger than this pulpit," he said knocking on the wooden stand.

"Didn't have any to work with here," North noted. "But I certainly do have enough of these…" He tweaked a switch and a large pod-like object appeared on the street nearby – then another – then another.

"COLDSLEEP TUBES?" Sara and Kinza shouted.

"Hey, they're shielded and can take some pretty heavy punishment," North said as he scratched the back of his head. "Unfortunately the computer only snagged those who it thought was in danger of being directly struck, and I'm still not sure if it got everyone – there wasn't much time to take them in."

Kinza looked at the first tube. "Are you sure that doing this would work? You didn't exactly follow normal procedures here…"

"Actually, they should come out of this even better than the old procedure," North said. "I've done this before remember…"

Kinza snapped a look at him. "Ea? Oh yea… that other mission…"¤ He noticed the odd look he was getting from Sara.

"It's a very long story," he said to her. "And now isn't the time to explain. How many more are there to bring up?"

North looked over the controls. "Not many I'm afraid. It looks like the outer areas lost their transponders early on – so those places did not report to the transmats." He sighed. "I'd say we have about a fifty percent loss here."

Sara looked over his readings, seeing that his pulpit was hooked up to the observer's satellite scanners. The final readouts were devastating. Three quarters of the city was gone. The lower quarter was wrecked. Over 2000 people had simply vanished in a burst of energy as the shields were breached.

"This is horrible," she said, gritting her teeth.

North nodded. "If there is any solace to this, they probably never knew what hit them… if the shields had not held for that slight moment, the blast would have made for some heavy suffering."

Sara stood back and shook herself. She was furious. What had these people done to harm any of the Plants? Why had her uncle forced this on them – on her? What were his motives? Why was he doing this?

"The answer is Brandywine, Sara," the voice of Knives said to her. "She is why the city of Promontory Falls is no more. It was retaliation for betraying him, and I think he was also using it as a way to keep the others in his Neo Gung-Ho Guns in line. No one now dares to oppose him."

Vash looked at his brother as they drove along in their car. Boston sat dozing in the back seat, his head bobbing up and down like a ball on a bungee-cord. Knives was in the passenger seat with his eyes shut.

"Are you talking with her again?" Vash asked him.

Knives opened his eyes and looked at him. He smiled and nodded. "Even when she's sad or angry, it feels so nice to touch her mind."

Vash looked back at the road ahead. "She is different – she's not the first lady officer that I've run into."

Knives shook his head. "She shouldn't be an officer – she's not strong enough."

"You shouldn't read so much into her on such short notice – you hardly know her."

Knives laughed. "You forget, I was reading and twisting minds for so long, I'm probably the best judge of character there is here. She shouldn't be a security officer – she's just not built for it."

Vash shook his head. "You've had very little actual contact with a woman, Knives. I'm not sure you're ready to judge her like that. Look at how you reacted when you saw Miss Brandywine first."

Knives leaned on his right hand as he stuck his elbow over his window's sill. "So you're saying that I'm naive?"

Vash shrugged. "Yes," he flatly said.

"And you're a man of the world…"

"Huh," Vash laughed. "More than you are. Remember, I was out there all this time, while you were cooped up in your little bulb-world!"

Knives looked over at him. "That's mean!"

Vash shrugged again. "That's the truth!"

Knives looked ahead. "And just how many ladies were you able to win over?"

Vash jerked the wheel a bit. "W-what's that got to do with anything?"

"Well, if you're such a ladies man…"

"I NEVER SAID I WAS A LADIES MAN!"

"Huh? What?" Boston grunted from the back seat.

Vash suddenly felt something. He looked over his shoulder at the sky to the southwest.

"There's another coming from the north!" Knives reported as he too felt the presence.

Vash hit the breaks and shifted into reverse, causing Boston to tumble to the floor. Gaining speed, the gunman managed to do a perfect bootleg turn and spun the small car about. He then floored it. Behind him, two beams of energy struck the road where they had been traveling.

"Mercy sakes!" Boston yelled as he held his bowler on his head.

"They've adjusted!" Knives shouted. Vash reversed course once again. A third bolt struck the ground where the car had been just a moment before. He floored it for all it was worth, taking a zig-zag path back down the road.

"There's too many rocks out in the desert to go cross country!" Vash said as he dodged a few stones.

"I'm beginning to wish we hadn't left our guns with Sara!" Knives yelped.

"For once, I agree with you, Knives!" Vash screamed as they avoided another pair of blasts. "DAAAAAMN IT ALLL TOOO HELLLL!"

The car bounded over some stones and bounced a few times as the gunman attempted to find a place to avoid the incoming rounds of energy.

"I think I finally know how you felt when I was hounding you, brother!" Knives shouted as he held onto the door of the coupe. "To the left, quick!"

Vash swerved as Knives had ordered. A tunnel greeted them. He shot the car into the hole just as another blast struck behind them. It felt like the car was riding only on the front wheels for a hundred yarz!

He stopped the car after regaining control of the rear wheels. The tunnel ended at an intersection.

"This looks like the tunnels the Tunnel Steamer uses," Vash said as the thunder of the blasts echoed down the tubes to either side. They looked back behind them as dust flowed down the exit shaft. Vash sighed and made a right turn.

"You're going to follow the tunnels?" Boston asked.

"It would seem to be the safest way to travel right now," Vash noted. "This way at least goes in the directing we were heading in."

Boston slid down the back of the seat and peeked over the chair. "Yes, but wasn't these tunnels made by sand worms?" he asked. "The Tunnel Steamer might scare them off, but I doubt that this little car will."

"Not to worry," Knives said as they sped along in the dark. "The worms are controlled by mental stimulation."

"Meaning…" the lawyer chirped.

"Meaning, if we don't bother them, they won't bother us," Vash finished. "Besides, this is a heck of a lot cooler than riding under those hot suns."

Knives laughed. "We really do have to get you inside a bulb some day."

------------------------------------

The shuttle trip was quick. 12 iles was a brief jump from the remains of Promontory Falls to where Brandywine was suppose to be – scanners showed it. So did the blast of energy that they were forced to dive under.

"Do you think she wants her privacy?" Kinza smirked as he dropped the ship to the desert floor.

"What gave you that idea?" North sarcastically replied. "Scanners show there's more than just BW there."

Sara looked out of the hatch. "I'll go first. She'll listen to a fellow Plant first I think."

Kinza pulled his sidearm and cocked it. "We'll back you up as much as we can."

They started around to the side of the shuttle. Scrub and weeds blocked any view of just where Brandywine was hold up. But they came upon her motorcycle. The paint had peeled off the top of the fuel tank from a scorching it had been through.

Sara held her hands out as she attempted to project herself into Brandywine's mind.

"GET OUT!" the artist's voice shouted. "LEAVE US ALONE!"

Sara sighed. "You know I can't do that. I must know what I'm dealing with here, and you're the only one who I can ask without someone trying to take a shot at me."

"AND WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I WON'T?" Brandywine yelled in her mind. "I WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE! I WAnt… I want… oh god I want…" Sara could feel her slumping. "Bryant… oh god I want my Bryant to wake up… please… please…"

Sara felt the pain, the suffering Brandywine was dealing with. She headed for an outcropping of stone behind the bike and found a small hutch-like building that had been made between the rock walls. The artist was leaning against the door jam with her shot gun in her hand, weeping.

"STOP!" Brandywine ordered out loud as she brought the gun back up. A wild look was in her eyes even as the tears flowed down her cheeks. She had the look of a woman that would be capable of doing anything – she was heaving and sobbing, but never did she blink. She leaned heavily into the door jam, the wall supporting her as she kept the barrels pointed at the officer before her.

"You do not want to shoot me, Brandywine," Sara said, her arms out wide in a show of peace. "We are here to help you, not hurt you."

"I… I DON'T CARE!" she bellowed. "THE WORLD HAS GONE TO HELL EVER SINCE YOU ARRIVED! Russ… now Bryant… DAMN YOU! I SHOULD SEND YOU TO D'TWO IN A FLAMING HEAP! YOU BOTH MADE MY LIFE A HOLY HELL!"

"Now you know better than that, BW," North calmly said as he came around the scrubby bush that he had been behind. "Officer Montgomery is probably the only one on this planet that understands your situation better than you do. Trust her, BW… Trust her…"

Brandywine lowered the gun slightly, but just a bit. Her fingers never left the trigger. But her eyes now were affixed to something other than the two people who had come to talk to her. She now was looking at the small furry security officer, who had a strange gun in one hand, and a device of some sort in the other.

"What the hell is that?" Brandywine asked, now holding the gun out and pointing directly at the Tomassamassa.

"Mr. Kinza, what are you doing with that device?" North asked him. Sara noticed the tone in the man's voice – there was something not right in that box the bear/cat man was holding.

"I have been authorized to use this if necessary," he said in a voice that almost sounded ashamed that he had to hold the device up. "I must have it at the ready."

He saw a hand come over his head and grab the box. North quickly lifted it away before he had the chance to grip it tighter. He then tossed it aside.

"No you don't," the preacher said with a smile. "And if Roy asks, tell him I said NO. Besides, I believe Miss Brandywine would know exactly what that was, and that you were ready to use it. And if you had used it, it would have probably clobbered the good officer as well."

"I don't understand," Sara asked puzzled. "What was that?"

Brandywine gasped, as if she had held her breath after seeing the device. "That… that was a Plant Snare! You were going to use a snare on me?"

"Only on stun, ma'am," the Tomassamassa said as he kept the gun he held pointed at her. "I'm a security officer as well. You aren't thinking clearly – if incapacitating you is the only answer, that device would have been cleaner." He glared at North out of the corner of his eye.

"It is disrespectful," North said, as he placed his hand on Kinza's gun to lower it as well.

Kinza snorted. "Damn it… who's the teacher here? Okay, we'll do this your way."

Brandywine lowered her gun. "Besides… he probably has a snare on himself as well," she said almost with a laugh.

"BW, of all the time we have known each other, you know I wouldn't do anything that would endanger you." He reached into his pocket and removed a mate to the device that Kinza had held out. He sighed and showed her the front of the device.

"You know these devices can only be used four times then they're burned out. There's one more round in this unit. I don't ever want to use this."

He spun the unit about so that the handle was pointing towards her. He stepped around Sara and held it out to her.

"Take it, and let us help you."

Brandywine looked at the device and at her friend.

"You… you make a lousy preacher," she said. She reached out and took the snare's handle. North pulled on the device and had her collapse into his chest. She began to cry her heart out across his shoulder.

Kinza holstered his gun. "I don't know – he makes a pretty good preacher in my book." He collected his snare and returned it to his belt as Sara removed the shot gun from Brandywine's grasp. She freely let it go and clung to the priest's shoulder for support.

"Come on," North quietly said to her. "Let's see what needs to be done here."

They entered the shack and found Bryant in the bed covered in a sheet. His head was beaten up, and he showed no signs of life. Both Kinza and Sara pulled out scanning devices and started looking him over. They looked at one another then back at Brandywine, who was watching them over North's shoulder.

"You timed him out, didn't you?" North asked her as he rubbed the back of her head with a soothing hand.

She sobbed again. "Yes… I didn't want him to be bothered by the incoming rounds… I didn't want him to get hurt… But the blasts… the ones that struck the north end of town… they knocked my studio down, and he was in there… I dug him out, and brought him here… but oh god, I can't bear to release him… I know he'll die, I just know it…"

Sara raised the sheet and saw what Brandywine meant. Large glass shards from the blown out windows had gashed him, and chunks of metal roof sections had punctured him in numerous places.

"Look at that," Kinza said. "No blood."

"W-what?" Brandywine asked, almost angry at the Tomassamassa's tone.

"You've kept him in stasis all this time, right?"

"DAMN YOU, LOOK AT HIM! OF COURSE I HAVE!" she barked at him as North held her back.

"DON'T GET HISSY AT ME GIRL!" Kinza shouted back, baring his fangs and claws. Brandywine wasn't expecting that, and cringed behind North. Sara also was taken aback by the cat-man's yell and snarl. "WHAT I'M TRYING TO TELL YOU is that he's still alive, and we might be able to help him! Don't go biting the hand that might be trying to HELP you! Sara, did your mother ever show you how she could heal people?"

Sara sat back on her haunches. "How did you know that?" she asked him.

He grinned. "I'm an observer!" he replied. "Okay, if you can start on him, I'll go get my stuff from the shuttle. You," he said pointing to Brandywine, "keep him in stasis while we work. 'Be back!" He scurried past the two at the doorway barking into his com unit. "Burnside, get my medical kit ready!"

Brandywine stood agape at the furry man-beast. He had just snarled at her then lightly told her not to worry… what a strange… person.

She looked back at Sara. She was already holding her hands over Bryant's head. The scratches and wounds were slowly vanishing. Kinza whisked by them again. He was carrying a duffle bag while pulling apart some sort of kit pouch, removing a strange probe-like device out. He then began to work on some of the larger wounds in the leg and chest areas. He would look at his scanner and continue working on areas that showed needing extra doses.

"How's it going up there?" he quietly said to Sara. She grimaced.

"The stasis is helping, but the skull is fractured," she said as hushed as she could while North lead Brandywine out the door. "There… I've restored its proper shape… but his brain…"

Kinza moved up to his head. "Here, you move down here… I've got a tool for just this sort of thing." He pulled a crown shaped item from the duffle bag and placed it on the bed above Bryant's head. He saw Sara's perplexed expression and he laughed.

"The doctors call this the knitting mill – it scans the neural readings, stores them by section, repairs that section then returns the recorded material. They claim that you only lose .01 of a percent of your memory that way, but it's better than being a vegetable."

"Wonderful thought," Sara commented as she started on a nasty wound near his back.

It took them nearly two hours to fix all they could scan on Bryant's smashed body. They had thought they had found all that needed to be fixed, until they remembered that he would need to be turned over. There they found what had come up from under the bed when the building had forced him through the mattress.

"Okay ma'am," Kinza said to Brandywine as he and the exhausted Sara stood back and looked at their work. "Cross your fingers, and let him loose."

Brandywine had hardly left North's side during the entire time. She looked at the two strangers who had come to her aid then at the body of her love. She sighed, as letting that breath go released her stasis hold on him.

Bryant slapped the mattress and howled. "OOOOOW!" he shouted as he grabbed his toes on his left foot. "OW! OW! OW! MY FOOT! MY FOOT!"

Sara looked at Kinza. He looked at her. They looked at Brandywine.

She didn't seem to even know they were there. She was running between them for Bryant, and nothing was going to stop her. She spun him around in the bed and was all over him even as he was yelling in pain. Sara quickly came over and used a fast burst of energy to repair the missed toes that were in need of repair.

"Whoa!" Bryant exclaimed. He had not seen Sara's healing bolt. He just knew that he was being spun about in the bed and kissed.

"Well, hello there," he said to Brandywine. "And just who might you be?"

Everyone got silent.

".01 of a percent?" Sara asked nervously.

"Bryant?" Brandywine asked him, a quiver in her voice.

"Wait for it," Kinza noted. "Wait for it…"

Bryant shook his head. "BW?" he asked the girl with him.

"See?" Kinza grinned. "Sometimes it just takes a second to kick in!"

"BW," Bryant said sitting perfectly still, "this isn't your studio."

"Ahem," North said clearing his throat.

Bryant froze further. "Why are there people behind me?" he asked. He then looked down to confirm that without the sheet, he would be naked to the day.

"Yeep!" he squeaked. He was then pelted by a pair of pants and a shirt.

"I'd toss the shoes as well, but they'd hurt!" Kinza said with a smile as he dropped them beside the bed. Bryant just glared at him with wide eyes as the Tomassamassa gave him a toothy fanged grin.

"Ain't life just one shock after another?" Kinza asked him. He then turned and left the cabin followed by Sara and North, both of whom excused themselves. Brandywine wanted a moment alone.

------------------------------------

The Tunnel Steamer pulled into the station at Olympia City. Meryl found that the exit was out a butcher's shop. These tunnels had some of the oddest exits!

Miami sat in her room. Her cat laid in her lap curled up in a ball as she caressed it. The nightmares the Plant Roanoke had induced had kept her awake for the last few days. Sara had noted to her that if she had stayed in her regen unit for the entire time she should have, she may have had more strength to fight off the attack – maybe she was right… but the thought of being in that small containment…

"This is so stupid!" she said to herself. The cat looked up at her with one eye then rolled over to show his belly at her.

"What is?" she heard. She looked up and saw Dallas outside her door. She sighed.

"I'm a Plant, damn it," she said in a near whisper. "How can I be… scared of being in a containment vessel?"

Dallas blinked. "You're kidding," he said nearly in shock. "Well… you're not the first one I've heard of being claustrophobic…"

She looked up at him. "I'm not?"

He walked in and kneeled down to her. "Nope. There was Lala…"

"Lala?"

Dallas laughed. "Los Angeles Unit One – Delta 17. She took on the name Lala since Unit Two was known as L.A. She couldn't stand being even in a Class 'A' containment unit - and you know how big those are. When last I heard, she was living out in the middle of the Flats in a cabin."

Miami rubbed the cat's belly. "Sounds lonely," she said.

Dallas shrugged. "It was her decision. And it's not like she's all alone out there. She got married and… oh, sorry."

Miami looked down. The inadvertent reminder of Philo had made her wince. Dallas placed his large hand on her back and gave her a rub. She sighed and looked up at him.

"What should I do?" she asked. "Where should I go?"

Dallas looked at the floor. "You could always stay with us. It's not like we want you to leave or anything."

She smiled and touched his hand.

There was a terrific crash. It sounded like someone had dropped a pile of china dishes. It made the cat leap straight up. It then did three laps around the room in a panic until it ran out the door.

"Is everything okay up there?" Dallas yelled out the door. There was no response.

"What's going on?" Miami asked.

Dallas shook his head. "I don't know… The girls were making diner last I saw," he said as he headed out of the cabin in the direction of the kitchen.

Dinner was all over the floor. A large kettle of stew had spilled and indeed, it was a pile of dishes that had shattered in the beefy mess. He looked about. Meryl and Millie were not to be seen.

There was a beep, and the familiar sounds of the sliding side door opening that told him someone was exiting or entering the Steamer. He grabbed a pistol and energized the palm of his left hand as a shield.

The door was open, and the steps had been lowered. No one seemed to have come aboard, so that left the fact that Millie and Meryl had left for some reason. He was about to check when he found Miami beside him with a pistol in her hands as well.

"Let's go," she said as she slid along the side of the machine. Dallas grunted and followed behind.

A quick assessment of the situation was made. The ladies were not around the Steamer either. Their thomases were still in the caboose unit. Dallas looked up the tunnel leading towards the exit in the butcher's shop. He could hear the sounds of footsteps. Meryl's boots! They made that sound! He gestured to Miami.

"Up here," he told her in her mind, and started up the steps. Miami was close behind.

At the top of the stairs they found the door wide open and the shop empty of anyone. Even the butcher was missing, and this was mid-afternoon, when the locals should have been getting that evening's meals.

"Damn, this isn't good!" he said as he headed for the front door.

Miami struggled out of the long stairwell, still a bit tired from all her recuperating. She looked around the empty shop to get her bearings.

A pair of shots rang out from the street out front of the shop. She held her gun up and ran out.

Dallas stood there before her slightly bent over.

"M-Meryl… why?" he asked. He then fell over with a sickening thud. As he dropped, Miami saw that it was the Insurance Girl who had shot, both barrels of the tiny Derringer still smoking.

The look on her face – she showed no signs of emotion, nor signs of knowing what she had just done. Millie stood still beside her friend simply staring at nothing.

"NO!" Miami shouted as she ran to the fallen Dallas. She cradled him in her lap. "Dallas! DALLAS!"

She looked up at Meryl. "Why? WHY?"

She continued to stare. She then dropped the gun and turned to walk away.

"You're not in control, I see that now…" Miami drew in a breath and raised her own energy levels.

"LET ME IN!" she shouted in the slipstream on the minds around her.

"Miami… Miami, did I just do what I think I just did?" she heard Meryl ask. She looked at the ladies as they started to walk away. Further down the street, she could see more town folks walking west out of town.

"Meryl! Meryl, you have to fight it!" Miami shouted in her mind. "Get control of yourself!"

"Sorry, ma'am… You may have been able to get through my block, but I still have control of their bodies," a rather plain voice said. "I'm sorry, but I'm just following orders."

"WHO ARE YOU?" Miami shouted to the sky. "WHY HAVE YOU DONE THIS TO ME AGAIN?" She brushed Dallas' hair away from his face. "WHY?"

"Miami… please, help us!" Millie whimpered in her thoughts.

Miami looked about. The town was now deserted. The girls were only spots on the horizon, and she had this massive Plant lying in her lap dying.

"OH GOD! HELP ME PLEASE! HELP ME, ANYONE!"

She lowered her head and sobbed.

"Don't worry, kiddo. I'm here to help."

Miami looked up. Lexington was lifting Dallas up off her lap and onto his shoulder.

"N-no! You came out of the containment unit too soon! You'll die too!"

Lexington winked. "Who said I ever left the containment unit?" he said with a grin. As he turned, she could see that he was shimmering.

"A projection!" she gasped. "Too much energy! He'll burn himself out!" She quickly followed behind them. She stopped at the doorway to the butcher's shop and looked at the direction the people and the girls had left. She looked down and saw her cat.

"Manfred," she told the cat via telepathy, "I need you to follow them. Report to me where they go."

The cat mewed then scampered down the street in hot pursuit.

Meryl and Millie, their minds freed, but their bodies still controlled by the unseen power, continued to walk in a straight line. They could see the rest of the town walking ahead of them, but could do little to stop them.

"Oh Vash, where are you?" Meryl thought.

The car screeched to a stop. A cold draft ran through the tunnel. Vash looked about. He could have sworn he had heard Meryl. He looked at Knives, who was also looking about.

"You heard that?" his brother asked him.

"Depends," Vash answered. "What did you hear?"

Knives looked about. "I could have sworn I heard someone call your name."

"Then yes… yes I did…" He looked about. "Where the hell are we?"

Boston looked at the dashboard. "We're too far below the surface to get a reading from the satellite," he said. "But that looks like a station ahead."

Vash screamed the car down to the landing. The large yellow stone was easy to roll. Sunlight streamed in the opening. The exit led out through the side of a hill. Vash shielded his eyes from the glare.

"Any sign of incoming rounds?" Knives asked. Vash ducked down, as he had forgotten about the reason why they had driven into the tunnels in the first place. Not sensing anything, he quickly stood up and felt around with his mind.

"Oh god… what is happening up there?"

Vash looked to the east. "That was Meryl's voice – I know it!"

The Insurance Girls stood at the back of the mass of people. The town folk had walked about two iles out. Meryl and Millie seemed to still be the only ones who could understand what was going on, though the throng of people were blocking any good view of where they had stopped.

"Ah, you have arrived," a voice said to them. It seemed disembodied as it seemed to simply float about them.

The voice was evident to Vash and Knives as well. They both were looking to the east now.

"We must be able to hear D'two via the girls!" Knives exclaimed. Vash looked at him.

"How did you know that was D'two?" he asked him. "I thought you said that you never actually heard him before."

Knives shook his head. "I don't know – it just felt like him to me," he said. "How do you know his voice?"

Vash returned his view to the east. "He spoke to me the night of the Ball."

Knives smacked him in the shoulder. "And when were you going to share this with me?" he asked him.

"Quiet you two," D'two said in their minds. "I'm ashamed of you Knives. You failed me."

"Pardon me, but you twisted me – these people cleared my mind. I am ashamed of what you made me do." Knives stood like a statue, and Vash could see him grinding his teeth as the voice of D'two laughed.

"Really… Well, I must say, making your brother suffer his torments was amusing, but it failed to accomplish what I had programmed you to do in the first place – The extermination of these pitiful humans."

"YOU HAVE NO RIGHT!" Vash yelled. "THEIR LIVES ARE THEIR OWN! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO TAKE IT FROM THEM!"

The laughter got louder. "Amazing… for a man who claims that he will follow his own path from now on, you do keep spouting the same dull doctrine that Rem dropped on you."

"YOU LEAVE HER OUT OF THIS!" Knives now shouted. The laugher now became a howl.

"Oh, this is too much! Now the 'evil' twin spouts her words! How precious! Please, do a dance for me, doggie! You are an obedient little puppy, aren't you? I can hardly wait until this stupid trial of yours! Just because you can prove that you were corrupted will mean nothing! I will see to that! You will be returned to the fold, I swear to it!"

Meryl's head ached. Being used as a conduit to speak to Vash was agony.

"Vash… help!"

"Yes, Vash… yes Knives… even you Boston. Help your ladies. Come to their aid. They're only a few miles away… HA! MILES! Do you like how I even corrupted their language? I have twisted this world to my ways, my words! These pathetic humans can't even get their language right after I've touched their minds!"

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" Vash snarled as he ran back for the car.

"Oh, don't worry," D'two said as he spun about in his chair. "I wouldn't dare hurt the woman who lets me into your world!"

Vash stopped. He stared at the dashboard.

"Meryl… no… he's going to use her as…"

"NO VASH! DON'T THINK ABOUT THAT!" she cried. "THERE IS NO WAY HE WILL USE ME AGAINST YOU!"

"Oh, but I already have," D'two chuckled. "Why else would I have brought you to this?" He sat up and waved his hand over a screen. The image of the town folk appeared. "But have no fear – you will not be harmed. I actually must thank Miami for freeing your minds. It does help with my plans."

"Fiend!" Vash cursed as he started the car. "And what is your plans, I'm afraid to ask."

"Ah now," D'two said as he tapped on the screen. "Actually, this will be a lesson to my former student."

Knives snapped a look back at his brother as the car pulled up along side him.

"What?"

"This is how to torment your sibling, dear Knives, AND get my objective completed at the same time," he laughed. "You in the front… you may start walking again. And you folks in the middle, please, show some courtesy and step aside so that the ladies may watch!"

Millie and Meryl could feel their muscles tighten so that they could not move an inch. It was hard to breathe.

"Not so tight Goethe," D'two scolded.

"I'm sorry, my master," the strangely dull voice that Meryl had heard earlier said. Vash and Knives looked to the north.

"That one came from up there!" Vash said. Knives nodded.

"Oh my god, NO!"

Meryl's shout brought the brother's minds back to the first problem. They looked east again and tuned into what she was seeing.

"NO!" shouted Vash.

The people had moved aside. The view was now clear. The front line that had been asked to start walking vanished over a cliff.

"I believe that back on our native Earth, there were these animals called Lemmings. They had this herd mentality that made them follow the leader, even if it was to leap to their deaths, am I right?"

A second group headed for the edge.

"STOP THEM! STOP THEM!" Millie cried. "PLEASE, OH DEAR GOD! STOP THEM PLEASE!"

They fell.

The car tore across the desert towards where the calamity was occurring.

"Aww… look at that…" D'two chuckled to the monitor. "I guess dropping off a cliff isn't enough to kill everyone there, is it?"

Meryl choked. "What? What do you mean?"

D'two traced his finger over a few moving bodies at the base of the drop. "They must be suffering so."

"BASTARD!"

D'two looked up and smiled. "Ah, Brandywine - so good of you to join us."

"Uncle, stop this! Stop this now!"

D'two slid his chair into a lying position. "Why, if it isn't my niece as well. This is a surprise, both of you - Especially you, Brandywine. I must ask how you shielded yourself from my scrutiny. I had thought that I had rid myself of you traitor."

"Artists are obsessive sorts, D'two… you should know that," she replied. "And you are my utmost thought right now. I will have my revenge on you!"

"Excellent words my dear," he said as he looked at the arm in the regen unit above him. "I will cherish this time then. But as for right now… I must do something for those suffering."

Another set of town folk plummeted off the cliff as the girls watched helplessly.

"Now," D'two said.

Meryl and Millie felt the ground shake. A blinding light was heading over the horizon.

Vash and Knives looked behind them and saw the oncoming blast as they heard the thunder and the roar. There was nothing to be done. There was nothing to prevent it striking home.

There was nothing they could do.

The beam of energy struck the base of the cliff, creating a massive cloud of black smoke. The smell was sickening to Meryl and Millie, who found themselves suddenly free of the lock on their bodies, but also found themselves being tossed back by the burst and shockwave. When they were able to look up, they saw that the face of the cliff had moved towards them a great deal, and that the majority of the towns people were gone – vaporized in the massive energy strike.

"There," D'two coldly said with a nonchalant attitude to his voice, "I've ended their misery. Satisfied?"

Meryl dropped her head into the sandy dirt and cried. She did not raise her head, even when a pair of large hands she had become familiar with reached down and touched her shoulder.

"Huh! Mr. Vash!" she heard Millie exclaim. She knew he was coming, but the tone of Millie's voice told her something wasn't right.

"Ah," the voice of D'two returned. "I see you've discovered your full potential, Vash the Stampede."

Meryl felt a slight gust of wind brush downwards around her, and the shadow cast before her was too large for her Vash. She looked up at him as he picked her up.

White crystalline feathers greeted her. A weeping face smothered her as he held her close.

"Never… never again!" Vash said to her. The car pulled up behind them. Boston gawked as Knives sat dumbfounded in the driver's seat at the sight of his brother, and the ancestral wings that were hanging from his shoulders.

"Damn you Vash," he mumbled. "You're more a Plant than I am."

Four shuttles descended on the disaster area, with Kinza's own leading the way. Sara had pounded a console to pieces inside. The sight of the Humanoid Typhoon with wings had brought a momentary silence to her cursing. She sighed.

"Mr. Kinza," she quietly said after looking over the debris, "I need to consult with my mother. Can you take me to her?"

------------------------------------

Wolfwood coughed. Blast it all, every time he tried to smoke a cigarette, the taste caused him to gag – though he was now before the Alpha Base elders – smoking was a no-no anyway.

"So that's your final judgment – even though there is overwhelming evidence that Knives wasn't responsible for his actions, you still intend to put him on trial?"

The large Plant at the center of the complex glowed slightly. "Yes," she said. "There is still more evidence to come, Mr. Wolfwood."

"Damn, you're as bad as Vash – always holding things back." Wolfwood snorted as he spat the cigarette out and crushed it with his foot. "Are you going to tell us just what you found, or are we going to have to wait until another town is killed like this butt I just stepped on?"

"Patience, Mr. Wolfwood," a young-looking girl said from her seat at a desk.

"That's easy for you to say Photon, while you're planted in that chair – meanwhile, people are dying out there!" he blasted. "And that's my WIFE out there too!"

"The evidence is not complete," another voice said from above them. Wolfwood looked up at the long set of seats that were along the back side of the complex. "We will watch and observe, even as those above us toil with their mission."

Wolfwood boiled. "BUT THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW THEY ARE ON A MISSION!"

"Life IS a mission, Mr. Wolfwood," another voice said beside the first. "You, of all people, should know that."

He turned away. "So, the judges' words are final?"

"We are not unanimous," the central voice said, "but we do consent to this direction for the time being."

Wolfwood shook his head. "As bad as politicians!" he growled. He looked at the image of Vash and Meryl on a projection that was hanging on the far wall. The wings were still evident. He looked back at his own black pair and laughed.

"I always knew his would be white."

------------------------------------

Sara looked at her friends as she stood at the door of the shuttle. Vash's wings had vanished, which confused many. They had expected the shirt on his back to be torn where they had come from, but no signs they had ever been there was present.

"Cindy? You're going to see Cindy?" he asked.

Sara nodded. "I want to know if Mother has any ideas on how to deal with her brother. I had come to take on Knives, not D'two. My training wasn't for this mission." She looked at the gunman. "How did you do it?"

"Do what?" Vash asked.

"Dealt with family?" she asked.

Vash looked down on her. "I don't know… I guess I just had to deal with it. I knew nothing but having to deal with Knives as an adversary until recently. As children, we managed to survive. It was as adults that we wound up at each other's throats. I simply had to learn to live through it."

She nodded and looked at the sand that the shuttle sat in. Kinza stepped around her and walked over to the Insurance Girls, who were sitting on a rock nearby collecting their minds after the ordeal they had been put through.

"Here," he said, handing each a brass-like disk on a chain. "These will keep anyone with a nosey mind from getting into yours again. They're not as big as mine, but they should do the job."

"I still think you're cuddly," Millie said with some weariness to her voice. She hugged the Tomassamassa then leaned back on the rock as the exertion was a bit much for her.

North stuck his head out of the door. "Kinza!" he yelled. "Call for you!"

Kinza nodded. "That'll probably be the clearance for this little trip," he said as he headed back into the ship's cabin.

"I would love to come with you," Miami said to Sara. "I always wanted to meet Cindy. But I have to watch over Dallas. The big oaf – a few more inches up and those bullets would have killed him… oh… I'm sorry…"

Miami was looking at Meryl, who was spinning the disk she had been given between her fingers. She looked up at the small Plant-lady with a start, having not fully heard what she had said.

"Huh?" she said. "I'm sorry, my mind is all scrambled right now."

Miami nodded and sat beside her. She looked over at Vash.

"So… he ascended."

Meryl looked at Miami. "Pardon?" she asked.

"Vash," Miami said as her cat bounded into her lap. "He has shown his full potential. He has shown his wings."

Meryl watched Vash as he slowly walked over to his brother, who was still seated in the car. Oddly, Knives had never left the vehicle after arriving.

"The wings are a symbol to the Plants," Miami continued. "They represent our non-human side – the children of Angel 5. We tend only to show them when we are first born, or when we are in our vessels, and the energy flow is great enough for them to come forth. But Vash has shown his without that additional power. So for him, the clock that never moves is now running."

Meryl snapped a glare at Miami - Millie as well. She had laid back on the rock for a moment, but was now leaning on one elbow.

"What do you mean, Miss Miami?" she asked.

She sighed. "Producing the wings outside a vessel is like pulling the pin on a grenade. He has severed any ties with The Source now. He is now completely on internal power until the day he dies."

Meryl gasped. "What… why would he… what did he do that for?"

"To save the life of the woman he loves, silly, why else would a man throw immortality away?"

"Nyaal!" the cat agreed.

Meryl stared at Vash. He did what?

"But what about my Nicholas?" she heard Millie ask Miami. "He has wings all the time."

Miami shook her head. "Wolfwood is based on an infant Plant. They have all sorts of reserve power. There's no need to hold any energy back while he's in there. But as for Vash - Perhaps it is because of his father's humanity that he simply did not die when he produced the wings. If I had done so, I would have depleted my power almost instantly. I would have burned out much like Lexington nearly did when he helped me earlier."

"How is Mr. Lexington," Millie asked – her voice in a sad tone.

"He will survive, though he did put himself through an enormous strain by creating that projection of himself. He has temporarily converted the Containment Vessel for the Steamer's Plant into a regen unit. We're stuck here for a day or two." Miami kicked a stone she was toying with by the tip of her shoe. It skipped over to Brandywine's foot.

The artist was staring at the descending second sun with Bryant at her side. From time to time she'd look over the edge of the new cliff face, which had been scarred black by the blast and the burning bodies. As much as Bryant wanted to keep her calm, the sight of this carnage was too much for her.

She turned away from the cliff and walked over to Sara.

"Deputize me," she said flatly to the officer. "I want to help you with this."

Sara looked at the woman and nodded. "I would be honored," she said, "but I'm not sure I'm authorized to do such a thing."

Brandywine smirked. "Just how many SEEDS Security Officers are there around to counterman your orders, Officer Montgomery?"

Sara smiled. "Point noted. Very well - as long as Bryant is okay with this."

Brandywine looked at her with scorn. "Bryant? Bryant has noth…"

"Of course I will be by her side through all this," he interrupted her. "You wouldn't be able to stop me. Besides, you do need an intermediary between the locals and the SEEDS Security Force, right?" He looked at Brandywine. "You weren't about to keep me out of this, were you?"

"I – I don't want you hurt, that's all," she said being taken aback by his sternness.

"Hurt? I've already been hurt by this clown, D'two is it?" he sniped. "First my brother, then my city – god knows if Mother and my sisters are still alive – damn straight I'm hurt! And I'll be damned if I'm shut out of this!" He then kissed her to prove his point.

"Now no more of this 'I go alone' attitude – and no more of these mind locks you've been putting me through," he said with a smile and a shoulder rub.

"You… you knew of them?" she quivered.

"Well how else would I have woken up out in the middle of nowhere with a set of broken toes to the sight of a furry man with teeth like a Kuroneko?"

And speaking of the Tomassamassa, he was now shouting inside the shuttle.

"WHAT IN BLAZES?" he was yelling.

"Sara!" North shouted. "You'd better get in here!"

The officer entered the shuttle and saw North prancing back and forth in a tizzy while Kinza was holding his head with his hand.

"Forrestal," North growled, "please repeat your last orders."

"Roger," a voice came from the com unit. "Flight to the base on the Fifth Deneb One moon is granted. Upon completion of this mission and return of those to the planet, all Federation personnel shall be evacuated and all ships will withdraw from the Deneb system until further notice – signed Nightow, Admiral – United Nations Spacy."

There was silence in the shuttle.

"Well, I'm an independent agent – I'm staying," Burnside said from the back of the cabin.

"Same here," North agreed. "I don't just abandon a project like this. There's too much history in the making here."

The evening fell. A delay was made of the trip for Sara as the survivors were escorted back to Olympia City in the shuttles. Almost every family was missing someone. Those who were not in shock by the sudden loss of a friend or sibling were ready to fight, but didn't know just what they were fighting against. The appearance of the shuttles worried others. Were they responsible for what had become of their people? Was there another reason?

Was it Vash the Stampede? After all, he was there with them now, wasn't he?

Meryl was too tired to argue further. No, it wasn't because of Vash the Stampede – it had occurred even before he had arrived. Yes, it had been directed towards him, but the ultimate goal of this twisted D'two wasn't the destruction of those like Vash and his brother, but the extermination of the humans.

Sara stood on the porch of the General Store. Kinza's shuttle waited for her to board nearby. She looked down the street. North was walking towards her carrying a suitcase.

"You're going?" she asked him. He nodded. "Why the change of heart?"

"I wasn't given any choice," he said sadly. "My fellow captain explained the orders to me."

Sara noticed his expression. "What was it then?" she asked.

North blew some air. "The reason we are being removed is so that the Federation can send in the Marines."

Sara held her breath. Vash stuck his head out of the door as he had overheard North's comment.

"Marines – what's that?" he asked.

North looked him in the eye. "Military intervention, Mr. Saverem – Specifically the 1st Armored Division of the Venus Space Marines."

Vash's eyes grew wide. "Venus?" he asked. Words spoken to him by Kinza flashed through his mind.

"**_You mean the Plantoids life form?" Kinza had asked. "They've been given their own status. It seems that the modified environment that was created on Venus seems to suit them fine."_**

North nodded. "Yup – those guys. A division made up entirely of Plantoids. They will be here by Monday… I mean Mo'day. You have until then to get the answer, Miss Montgomery, or god help us all. I've seen these guys before. Think of a large assembly of men, all looking like and having the power of Dallas. Now think of them as all being ticked off that you're shooting at them."

"Not a pretty sight," Vash said.

"Indeed, especially since they're going to be looking at you for guidance!" North added.

"WHAAAA?" Vash and now Meryl shrieked.

"That's pretty close to what I said to them as well," North commented. "I reported to them that you're actually a pacifist at heart, but they were insistent. They need someone who knows what they're about to come up against, and they need someone who knows the lay of the land and who can come up with good sound strategies."

"Strategies?" Meryl shouted. "This guy couldn't strategize himself out of a box, let alone out of a situation like this!"

"Gee, thanks honey," Vash mumbled.

"And as for leading these men," she continued her character witnessing, "he goes out of his way to avoid harming a fly! Put him in charge of a bunch of men with guns, and you're just asking for trouble!"

"Don't hold back Meryl… tell us know how you really feel!" She shrunk down and lowered her accusing arm at the look she was getting from Vash. She stifled a slight laugh.

"Nonetheless, I told them exactly that," North said. "And you know what their answer was? There's a 'fist' in pacifist." He then pointed at Vash and scowled. "Monday," he said then continued off towards the only other shuttle around with an "I shall return!"

"All aboard!" Kinza announced as he stuck his head out of his shuttle. "This shuttle is heading for Rigel, Deneb, the Outer Rim and all points west! Next stop, the Fifth Moon base!"

Brandywine hugged and kissed Bryant, then stepped aboard the ship. Sara stood, her mind seeking Lexington's. But with the systems set as a regen unit, touching minds was out of the question. She looked up and saw Knives leaning against a porch support.

"I'd come along, but I feel I'd be lynched," he said to her as she walked towards the shuttle. She looked at him.

"I suppose so," she said. "I'm sure that they've been watching what has been going on down here. I'm sure they think I've botched things up here…"

Knives shook his head. "I don't think so – you've been doing a terrific job. You just need to find D'two now. Once he's taken down, you'll be able to find the others easily."

"You think so?" she snidely noted. "I was coming to this town in search of those two who said they were here. All I found was another disaster, more people dead, and I haven't even had the chance to search for those two! Tell me that we're getting anywhere!"

Knives held her by her shoulders. "Now – now – That's no way to talk. Tell you what, while you're conferencing with your mother, I'll get Vash and we'll check out this town and see if we can find anything of Horloge and Sandusky, okay?"

She smiled. "Thanks," she said. He kissed her on the forehead and stepped her aboard the shuttle. The cabin door slid shut and sealed. She sat down and resumed her thoughts.

"_You just need to find D'two now. Once he's taken down, you'll be able to find the others easily."_

"How?" she asked aloud. "How do I find D'two?" She looked out the portal beside her as the ship began to lift off the ground. Many of the others were waving to them as they flew up – all but Knives. He stared at her.

"How did you know that Knives?" she asked.

The shuttle slipped out of the atmosphere quickly. Brandywine sat plastered to the window, awestruck by the view she was having. One hundred thirty some odd years before, when she had come to this planet, she had been inside a Plant, deep within a ship's engine room. Scanner readings were the only view she had at the time of the flight. This view was so much better.

"My lands, what is that?" she asked. Sara blinked out of her thoughts and looked over with her.

It was long and relatively flat - A massive ship was hovering over the planet. Unlike the pod-like shape the SEEDS ships had taken, this one was angular and had a large section hanging below the rest of the vessel that their Plant instincts were reading as a serious energy source.

"Is that your ship, Mr. Kinza?" Sara asked the pilot.

"Actually, my ship is off to the right," he said as he adjusted their approach. She looked at him and saw a reddish-yellow glow play off his face. She looked out the starboard window she had been sitting at, and was greeted by a pair of huge engine exhausts. The shuttle bounced slightly as they passed through the wake left by the thrusters.

"Ding-dong! Ding-dong!" an alarm chirped. "Shuttle 7, shuttle 7 – divert to course shown."

Kinza looked at the readings and nodded. "Odd – they seem to be making everyone avoid the second moon.

Brandywine stepped into the pilot's house. "Did any of our ships land there or something?"

Kinza shook his head. "Naa – SEEDS landed only on the planet and the two moons… umm the forth and fifth moons. All the others are devoid of life. The only thing I know of on that moon was the scanning probe we sent that crashed there some one hundred fifty years ago."

The shuttle started its diversion, using the third moon as a slingshot.

Kinza growled. "You know, maybe it's my cat blood, but I hate being left out in the dark on something like this, especially when it's going to add an hour to our flight." He slightly adjusted his ship to the edge of the flight path that was given to him by the alert system. His scanner edged further and further into a red area.

"Ah, here we go… something is going on over there."

Sara nodded as she looked at the readings. "I agree. It looks like some large ships."

"Really now…" Kinza tweaked his controls. "Computer, identify those ships on the second moon."

"Classified," the computer responded.

"Not to the security chief!" Kinza growled. "Code 67-29 Alpha 7-9."

Names and classes now covered the ships that were showing on the scanner. Kinza whistled.

"Whoa, those are huge ships! Not as big as my ship, mind you, but they're bulky. Full of equipment I would surmise… but why?"

The alert system squawked. "Ding-DONG! Ding-DONG! Off course! Off course!"

Kinza moved the ship back towards its original heading.

"Of course! It's the Marines!" Kinza exclaimed.

Sara and Brandywine looked at the ships, then at each other.

"What are they doing here already?" Sara asked.

"Simple military prep, I think," Kinza noted. "But that's a pretty large force if that's just the 1st Armored Division."

"Do you think they'd be ready to fight before Monday?" Sara pondered.

Kinza shook his head. "Couldn't tell you. But that sure looks more like an invasion force than a 'put down a tyrant' force. I mean, that's a heavy carrier – what the heck do they need a heavy carrier for?"

"Excuse me, but what are those?" Brandywine asked as she pointed out into space. Something out there was moving, leaving short little streaks in the dark void.

Kinza looked at the movement and quickly adjusted his scanners. "Oh frack," he grumbled. "That's not good!"

"What? What is it?" Sara asked looking at the readings and at the lights playing far out in space.

"Those are warp trails of incoming ships. And they're all heading here."

Sara looked Kinza in the eyes. "What is going on?" she asked flatly.

Kinza looked at the readouts of the ships. "1st… 2nd and 3rd Earth Sphere Defense Forces. This area is too valuable to the Earthlings. My guess is that if these guys don't stop D'two," he said pointing to the scanner, then moving his hand to the other set of readings, "these guys will."

oOo

**Next Episode**

_**From the Halls of Montezuma **_

To the soil of Titan 3

We will fight our planet's battles

Throughout the galaxy

First to fight for right and freedom,

And to keep our honor clean,

We are proud to claim the title

Of U N Space Marines!

Next Episode of TRIGUN: MOON CHILD – Chapter 13 – Semper Fi Non Gradis

HOOOAH!

¤ See _The_ _Lugia Chronicles _& _After Chronicles – Year of the Cat_

Robert North, Roy Strom, Elb Kinza, UNS Forrestal and GENUINE DOORKNOB ©2003 DMS – Used with permission  
All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow  
Roanoke, Burnside ©2003 S. E. Nordwall - Used with permission  
Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003, 06 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0311.23


	16. Semper Fi Non Gratis

**Chapter Thirteen**

TRIGUN:**  
****MOON CHILD****  
****Semper Fi Non Gratis**

**By R. A. Stott**

"Brandywine… Brandywine! Wake up!"

The artist had fallen asleep looking out the portal into the vastness of space. Once the shuttle had cleared the third moon there was little to look at. Even Kinza had set the ship for automatic and stretched back in his seat. She blinked and looked back at Sara, who had shaken her awake.

"We're almost there," the officer exclaimed. She seemed almost chipper about it.

Brandywine rubbed her eyes and stood up, stumbling slightly at first as she got her space legs again. She was yawning as she stepped into the pilot's house and got an eyeful of the massive Vash Crater glaring back at her. She jumped at the sight, now filling the view of the window – her groggy condition had not prepared her for what looked like an eye looking back at her.

"Damn, that thing's even creepier up close!" she mumbled as she composed herself.

"You should have been there when it was made," Sara noted. Brandywine looked over at her.

"You were there?" she asked. "How close were you?"

Kinza pointed at his astro-navigator. "The ship is here," he said as he pointed to a blinking light not far from the edge of the hole. Brandywine whistled.

Sara looked at the crater closely. "What's going on there?" she asked pointing at the center of the depression. Kinza looked and smiled.

"We did that," he said. Sara looked at him with a shocked expression.

"That's a second set of blast holes," she said.

"Uh huh," the Tomassamassa agreed. "Relief holes. The original shot that Vash gave the moon was bounding back and forth inside the core. We bored a pair of holes to take the stress off. See the fresh lava down there?"

A large field of black covered the reddish yellow surface near the holes.

"What would have happened if you hadn't done that?" Brandywine asked. Kinza cocked his head and grunted.

"Well, it's not finished actually," he said. "The pressure was reduced to prevent any further chance that the moon could literally break up – there was a chance of that as recently as a few weeks ago – that was a good chunk of surface he vaporized there. Anyway… umm… well this is the second problem…"

He punched a few keys on his controls and switched his astro-navigator to a 3-D image of the planet and its moons. He then sent them spinning around the planet with a calendar running beside them.

"Watch the fifth moon at about four hundred and fifty years from now," he said as he pointed at its representation in the hologram. Even at three hundred years, they could notice that it was getting an erratic elliptical orbit. At four hundred fifty years, it vanished. Kinza reversed the projection and slowed it down. He then played it again. The moon shot out of orbit. He had the playback follow the wayward sphere. It then took an orbit around the first sun. The surface melted – the massive crater vanished, as did any other objects that were once there.

"Obviously, our next objective is either evacuation of the moon, or stabilizing its orbit," Kinza said as he folded his arms. "It's not impossible to stabilize the moon – and it would keep things pretty much in balance. Otherwise, the loss of this moon could cause some further orbit problems with the other moons."

Sara looked over the projection at Kinza. "Isn't this assisting where the observers should be staying away?"

Kinza rubbed his nose. "Is it?" he said with a smirk. "Well, if it is, I won't tell. Actually, we've technically made contact with those on the Fifth Moon. It's the planet below that we need to continue observations only on."

A tone caught Kinza's attention. "Interesting," he commented.

"What is?" Sara asked as she noticed that he was reading a scanner.

"Your mother is in Plant 2, right?" he asked. Sara nodded. "I'm reading that the unit is in regen mode."

Sara looked at his readings. "Why would she be in regen mode?" she asked.

_**"You've got to be kidding."  
**_  
"Oh my god, no…"  
_**  
"YOU DISGUST ME MISTER - YOU REALLY DO!"  
**_  
Sara's face turned white.

_**"Please stop," Miami said from inside her regen unit. "Philo would not approve of your actions, Officer Sara." **_

"Sara! Sara!" Meryl yelled while trying to grab the flaying nightstick Sara had used on B.D.N. "What did he do?"

Sara stood up, sweat running off her forehead. She glared down on the man she had just administered a pummeling on. "This… man," she had a hard time saying, "raped her in exchange of not killing Philo the first night they arrived."

Miami looked down from her inverted position. "There was little we could do," she sent to Sara in a thought transmission, "but I did agree freely to do it."

Sara snapped a look back at her. "You did not agree freely – you were coerced." She looked back at Neon, who remained sprawled on the table.

"I never knew she was the power unit… believe me… I never knew…" he whispered. It got another belt from Sara.

"You even threatened this Philo after she disappeared," Sara snarled. "You demanded that she be brought back!"

B.D.N. looked up at her with shock. "How did you know that?" he gasped.

"I saw it in her mind," she said, pointing at the girl in the glass bulb. "Then I looked into history with my mind…" Sara looked up at Millie, who had taken a position between her and the outlaw.

"Miss Sara, please… settle down. You're an officer of the law, not the judge," the Insurance Girl said in a hushed voice.

Sara glared at her and nearly brought the stick to bear on her as well.

"SARA, STOP!" another voice commanded. She looked up at the ceiling and felt where it had come from. Her heart leapt to her throat and her knees felt as if they were about to collapse.

"M-mother… how…" she said.

"I am using all my strength to talk to you," the strained voice of Cindy echoed through the Steamer. "Sara, my child, Millie is correct."

"Mother, stop!" Sara started to weep. "You'll injure yourself transmitting through a Plant's containment vessel like that!"

"Justice, Sara… remember… Justice." The voice faded.

"Mother… oh god, mother, no!"

The shuttle descended on the ship and prepared to dock.

----------------------------------------

The warehouse was large and cluttered with boxes. Knives entered first, his black revolver held close to his face. Vash moved in close behind him, his silver gun held to his chest. He was breathing heavily. Knives looked over at him.

"Are you feeling well, brother?" he asked. "You seem to be having trouble getting your breath."

Vash waved him on. "I'm all right… Just need to get my legs again."

Knives looked around some boxes. "Generating those wings earlier wasn't the smartest thing to do you know."

"Now isn't the time to talk about them," Vash noted as he pointed his gun and stepped out from behind the boxes. He then gestured Knives to come around and take the next set of crates.

"Actually, this is the perfect time to talk about them," Knives said as he darted around and pointed his gun at the other side of the box. "I mean, even I haven't been able to generate them when I was in the regen unit."

Vash moved to the next set of crates. "I'm told that you need to be in a full containment vessel to generate them," he said as he aimed at the empty wall.

Knives nodded. "I must remember to try a full unit one day," he said, seemingly impressed that his brother would know that. He charged around the last set of crates before making it to a back office. He plastered himself against the outer wall and motioned to Vash to move in. The legendary gunman took a few steps to get up some speed before placing his boondockers hard against the handle of the door to the room, smashing it clear of its frame. He landed on one knee and aimed the gun about the room looking for any movement.

"Well now," Knives said as he entered the room, "this explains some things."

Vash blinked. "Yes and no, actually," he said as he looked at what they had found. There was a regen unit sitting in its c-frame mount. The bulb was sitting in its seat, disconnected from the rest of the unit as if awaiting its next user. Knives looked it over.

"Fairly large unit," he said. "What other information do you need?"

Vash tapped it with the tip of his gun. "Power – these units still need an outside power source to work. The one in the Tunnel Steamer runs on the Micro Plant beside it. What's powering this one?"

Knives looked at the base of the unit. He removed a panel and looked at some cables. He then looked at the floor near its base. He tapped the surface until a small handle popped up. He pulled on the grasp and lifted a plate off the deck. A large red cylinder-like thing was exposed.

"Well, this Sandusky is certainly resourceful," Vash commented. "That looks like a storage cell from a ship's mainframe."

Knives stuck his head down the opening. "It looks like there's quite a few down here," he said. "So, how did they feel?"

Vash shook his head. "What?"

"The wings – how did they feel?" Knives stood up and put his arm around Vash's shoulder. "I mean, I've always wanted to know… I've never had the pleasure like you have."

Vash looked at the floor. "I really don't know. I mean, I really didn't make them come out on purpose. They just came out of me."

"You can say that again – you nearly wrecked us there, kiddo."

Vash remembered how they burst forth, nearly knocking Boston out of the back seat of the car, and causing him to launch out of the driver's seat. Knives had to scramble to get across the front seat to get behind the wheel before the careening vehicle hit a boulder.

"That was a near thing," he agreed. He then blinked and looked around. They were now standing outside of the warehouse. "What are we doing out here? There's stuff to investigate in there!"

"I brought us out of there before the bomb we tripped by opening up that hatch blew up," Knives blankly said. "So, how fast did you actually fly?"

"BOMB!?" Vash yelled. As he did, the roof of the warehouse blew sky-high, sending kindling, building and box parts all over. The material inside the storage cells began to burn violently. Finally the outer walls fell in on the place.

"Ahem."

Vash raised his head from the prone position he was in. So did Knives.

They saw feet. Large boot shod feet. They looked up.

And up.

And up.

"My," Knives said, "he's a big one!"

"Are you Vash Saverem?" a low – low – deep in the bowels of his chest low voice rumbled the ground.

"Um… he is," Knives volunteered. Vash glanced at his brother by the corner of his eye then smiled a weak smile.

"Ah, thanks Knives," he whispered.

"Don't mention it," he replied.

"I won't." Vash quickly stood up dropping the many small bits of warehouse off his body (he made sure they 'accidentally' fell on his brother). He now could see that the man before him was still larger than a breadbox. He took two steps back to see him clearly. He wore dark green fatigues and a green barrette that was trimmed in red. He was then surprised when the man knocked those large shoes together then saluted him.

"Sergeant Ashton Harrisburg," what sounded like the roar of a clap of thunder said. "First Armored Division, Venus Space Marines, SIR!"

Vash's jaw was slack. He looked down at his brother, who was leaning on one elbow. He shrugged and gestured for Vash to at least answer back.

"Umm, yes, umm… Sergeant…" Vash said. He cleared his throat then looked closer at this hulking man before him. "Umm… not to be rude, but you are a Plant, are you not?"

Harrisburg shifted on his feet. "Sir, yes SIR!" he barked.

Knives stood up with interest on his face. "A Plant?" he asked looking at the short curly black hair across the man's head and his dark complexion. "I've never seen a Plant quite like you, sir – though you do show the energy signs of one."

The man cleared his throat, which sounded like the tailpipe of a large truck as it was starting up. "I am like you, sir – My father was human. But unlike you and your brother, I have uniqueness among our people."

"And that is?" Knives prodded.

The man looked down on Knives and glared. "My father's genes were the dominant over my mother's."

Vash held his hands up in an attempt to calm the banter. "Okay, okay, okay… This is nice and all… but please explain – what may I ask may I do for you?"

The Sergeant snapped-to again - "I am here to report to you as your liaison between my commander and yourself, SIR!"

"Why me?" Vash mumbled. "Not another mouth to feed!"

Knives patted him on the shoulder. "You don't have enough donuts, bro."

"Vash?" he heard. "Vash are you all right?"

Meryl was running up the street along with Millie and a few of the town's folks that were left after the disaster of that afternoon. She slowed to a walk as she saw the massive green garbed man who was being illuminated by the burning wreckage.

"Oh my, Meryl! He's huge!" Millie exclaimed.

Meryl shook her head and cleared her stare at the Marine and returned to the matter at hand. "What happened?" she shot at Vash.

"Booby-trap," Knives reported.

"And it caught a pair of boobies, didn't it?" she sniped. Vash laughed and rubbed the back of his head.

"Well, we did find where they had been, but they had removed everything, save their regen unit," Vash noted.

Meryl nodded towards the large man. "Who's our friend then?" she asked, as she continued to play with the trigger of her Derringer.

"This is Sergeant Harrisburg of the First Armored Division of the Venus Space Marines," Vash introduced. "Sergeant, this is Meryl Stryfe of the Bernardelli Insur…"

"The Bernardelli rep in this area?" the Marine interrupted. He then leaned down and took her hand, gun and all, and shook it. Meryl felt like the rattle end of a maraca as he shook her hand/body/world. "Pleased to meet you, ma'am! I am to be your liaison officer as well."

"S-s-swell!" she said as she felt a bit light-headed after the world stopped bouncing. "But why me?"

"I've been asking the same question for the last few minutes," Vash said in a light voice. He then directed himself to the Marine. "Why indeed, sergeant - We weren't expecting you until Mo'day… I mean Monday."

The sergeant adjusted his stance. "The rest of my division will be here on Monday, your time. I am just the advanced scout, so to say." He looked at the burning building. "May I ask what you were doing here?" he then asked.

Vash looked back at the wreckage. "We were attempting to find the whereabouts of a pair of outlaws who are assisting the chief baddie here…"

"…But they managed to get away and blew up their base of operations," Knives finished.

The sergeant neither showed signs of agreeing or disapproval with what he was seeing – he just grunted. "I see," he said. He then reached into his shirt and pulled out a full-sized Doorknob device. He gave the unit a twist and looked around.

D'two sat up.

"Hello," he said. "Someone has come a knockin'!"

Harrisburg grinned and turned his Doorknob back on.

"I found your chief baddie," the Marine said with a smile.

D'two pondered what he had just felt. A Plant – A big Plant – and not just an ordinary Plant – an ADVANCED PLANT!

He shivered. The thrill of it all was nearly too much for him. He looked up with a grin on his face at the arm in the regen unit above his sphere.

"Is it time my friend?" he queried the appendage. "Is it time to release the fury? You are the true typhoon, not that vestige that remains loose on this world. Shall I send you forth to meet this new strength? Vash has at last shown his full potential – and now, I feel a Plant has arrived that is worthy of my own knight." He stood up and stepped out of the pod. He looked at a stack of books that were sitting nearby, rotting in the humid conditions. He held his hand over them and instantly removed all water from them. He then flicked a finger at them, and a spark caught them afire. Worms and giant silverfish scurried and wriggled out of the bindings as they too caught on fire.

"The human maggots dared to send in their servants," he said to the burning chapters. "Slaves of man. They shall pay. Strange how he appeared out of nowhere."

D'two waved his hand over his head, and a vision appeared before him. The five moons were displayed in a row. He pointed at them. The first moon enlarged and moved towards him. He grasped it – looked around it – twirled it – found nothing, so he tossed it. Next was the second moon.

As it approached him and he attempted to take hold of it, he found that he could not. Something sparked between his grasp and the surface. So, without touching the representation, he made the moon turn about.

"Ah ha," he murmured to himself. "What have we got here? More visitors, ea? They're making a mess of my Second Moon… Interesting… Sandusky!"

"Master?" the Forge replied in his mind.

"Range data, if you please," D'two asked. "What is the range of your shot guns?"

Sandusky pondered this for a moment from his seat in Horloge's car. "Well, we know that they are at least twice as powerful as Vash's Angel Arm Cannon, and his struck the Fifth Moon. That is a range of some 290,000 iles… it took approximately 8 seconds for the shot to reach the surface, and there's no knowing how far it would have gone if the moon had not been in the way."

"So you're saying that your shot gun cannon should have the range of say 600,000 iles?"

Sandusky scratched his head as Horloge nervously looked over at him. He wiped a bead of sweat off his brow.

"Yes and no, master," he grimaced. "As you know, we've been able to drop rounds of fire across the planet, and rather accurately I must say…"

"Get to the point," D'two thundered.

Sandusky jumped in his seat. "B-but master, that is the point – we used the gravity of this planet to do those shots from such a distance. The same gravity hampers long range shots, as it causes the beam to fall back on itself. It would need a carrier wave, or an excellent marksman to make it work at that extreme range. Frankfort probably could have done it, but I'm not sure if he survived the attack on Promontory Falls."

"Don't count me out boyz," a weak voice entered the mental conversation. "I am shtill able to do my vork."

"Frankfort," D'two said in a pleased voice. "You disappoint me."

The injured Plant stepped into the hall before his master. His right arm was missing.

"Master?" he asked.

D'two snapped his finger. To Frankfort, the world seemed to hold still for a moment as a line of white stripes passed over him.

"You're missing the wrong arm," D'two said. "That is a shame."

Frankfort tipped to one side. As Sandusky and Horloge watched in their minds, the sniper started to collapse like a stack of sliced lunch meats. A large glass jar floated down beside the carved up pile, which was then unceremoniously dropped into it.

"Always recycle," D'two said as he turned to the sphere.

"Master," Sandusky cautiously said, "wasn't he our best marksman?"

D'two began to laugh out loud. "Hardly, my dear Forge. I have the finest marksman here with me now. Run your tests. I expect to get range data on the shot guns within twenty-seven hours." He slowly closed his mind's door, leaving the two in the car to hear him snickering.

D'two turned to the arm. A gesture brought the regen unit down to him. The arm behind the glass began pounding on the sides like the clapper of a bell.

"Contamination? No no… I doubt that," he said to himself. "Even if the arm contains a trace of him, it should only enhance it, not ruin it. What? Cleanse it before regenerating it? Time is short. We have little time to be hindered with such things." The unit flipped as it neared the floor.

"Come. We must take you to a C-Stand." D'two walked down the narrow path that lead from his sphere. The regen unit followed along like a faithful dog.

----------------------------------------

Sara looked at Kinza. He sighed and patted her on the shoulder.

"I'll be waiting here," he said. "Don't take too long. I'll keep a monitor on those ships out there and what's going on over there on the Second Moon – okay kid?"

She smiled and looked at the floor. She had come hoping for some answers, but now that she was about to find her mother regenerating, or hopefully not worse, she was now hoping that it wasn't a wasted trip.

Brandywine opened the aft compartment. "The seal is good. We can exit."

Sara nodded and followed her to the rear. Kinza closed the airlock and opened the outer door.

"Child, child, child!" a small man said as the door slid away.

"Eighty-Nine!" Sara said aloud. She suddenly noticed how much quieter it was there – a reminder of the lack of much oxygen there was. She held her head as things got a little dizzy for a moment. She looked over to see Brandywine doing the same.

"This is normal?" the artist asked in her mind. "This is going to take some time getting used to."

"Actually, life support was up ten percent until…" a younger looking man said next to Eighty-Nine. A girl that looked about his age gave him a shot to the ribs with her elbow.

"OneO'Five… OneO'Seven," Sara said as she greeted her friends. "I have little time to discuss my visit – take me to my mother."

They looked at one another. Eighty-Nine then took her arm and lead her down the corridor towards the engine room.

"Prepare yourself child," he whispered in her mind.

Sara looked at herself. It was nearly a perfect mirror, though convex by the shape of the bulb, and slightly darkened. The image to her was that of a burned out light, its inner surface scorched by the flames that had extinguished it.

"We know she is alive in there," Eighty-Nine said to them. "She at least allowed us to know that. But why she used such energy at that moment – I do hope you know why… the transmission was sent to you. We do not know what it was about, since she sent it towards you directly and you were underground at the time. Our surveillance is limited when you travel like that."

Sara's face was covered in tears. "This is my fault," she said. "I let my emotions override my sense of justice… she told me so. Oh god, Eighty-Nine… what have I done?" She dropped her head and fell to her knees.

Brandywine stood beside her and placed her hand on the bulb's surface.

"She cared for you," she told her. "She is your guide through this. And from what I'm feeling here, she still is."

Sara looked up at the artist. She had forgotten that Brandywine was a full Plant – she could sense Cindy through the glass better.

SQUEEEK!

Even in the thin atmosphere, something was making a horrible piercing sound that was making everyone wince. All but Brandywine - she was starting to laugh.

"Well, I think we have a sign!" she said as she stepped back from the Plant's bulb. Sara looked up and saw the black being removed from the inside by a hand that was being covered in the soot. She stepped back to see what her mother was doing.

"Oh!" Eighty-Nine exclaimed. "That woman sometimes has the most warped humor!"

Two dash eyes and a cockeyed grin greeted her.

"A smiley," Sara said. She then started to giggle, which changed to a hard laugh. She ran up and planted her hand on the glass. From the other side a dirty hand made an imprint in the ash. Sara could feel her mother's warmth feeding through her again.

"Eighty-Nine," she said turning towards him, "I need a regen unit in here, NOW!"

Half an hour later, a regen unit was seated beside the giant Plant #2 unit and the room vacated, save Brandywine, Eighty-Nine, OneO'Five, OneO'Seven and Sara. The officer had stripped down and was covered in nothing more than a towel. She stepped into the leg clamps of the regen unit's base. She handed the towel to OneO'Seven and nodded to the others to lower the glass bulb down. It slid over her slender body and hissed shut as it sealed. She then was slid into a C-Mount and inverted. She crossed her arms and closed her eyes.

Eighty-Nine looked at the woman in the regen unit and at the larger Plant. He nodded to OneO'Five. He gave one last check over the cables between the units then slid a rod into Sara's pod.

A warm feeling flowed over Sara's body as the energy flowed into her from its source – her mother. She smiled and allowed herself a brief moment of indulgence as she felt as if she was in her mother's arms again as if she were a little girl.

"You are a little girl," she heard. "Sara, honey… you're still only 8 months old."

The sound of her voice filled her mind and soul. Sara looked up.

Two women greeted her. They were all under a huge tree. A gray stone slab jutted out of the ground beside the tree. Another woman was there singing to herself. She returned her stare to the first two women – why was she looking at them from knee level?

She looked at herself – she was indeed that small child again – the one she left behind nearly seven months ago!

"Mommy, I wanted to see you again, but not like this!" she yelped as she waved her arms about.

Cindy looked at her daughter closely. "Oh dear – did I do that?" she asked.

"You need to be careful what you say or suggest while in here," the woman on the rock said. "Just think of yourself as the girl you were before you came here."

Sara concentrated. When she opened her eyes, her mother was looking at her at eye level. She embraced her. She looked over at the other woman who was with her mother. The woman bowed to her. Her angular face was familiar to her somehow.

"Mother, where are we?" she asked. "I feel like I've been here before."

"Possibly in your dreams," the woman on the stone said. "I believe some of your friends were here not so long ago."

Sara pulled away from her mother's embrace slightly to look at the lady better. "You're Rem, aren't you?"

She smiled. "Yes, I am. Welcome to my home."

Sara looked around the void. Other than the tree and stone, the place was devoid of any substance. To her, there was a hazy yellow sky, though the closer it got to the tree, the bluer the sky became.

"It is the way she sees this universe," the stranger said to Sara's wandering gaze. "Otherwise, to us, it is simply this yellow sky."

"Is this… The Source?" Sara asked. Both Cindy and the woman nodded.

"This is where we dwell when we seek the power that the humans require us to obtain for them," Cindy answered her. "This is where the life flows to us – where we came from, and where we shall go in the end. Life begins here, and life ends."

Sara looked at the strange woman again. "I know you from somewhere, but I can't fathom…"

She smiled. It was then that Sara noticed it – her eyes. She had seen her eyes before.

"You're his mother – their mother – Vash and Knives's mother!"

The woman bowed, and it was at this time that Sara also noticed that she was wearing a kimono.

"You are very observant," she said. "A fine officer for the Security Force. My name is Myuki – I was the Plant from Tokyo – Delta 87."

Sara looked about. "So, why did we come here? Why are you here Myuki?"

She looked at Rem. "The trial – it is my duty as chairwoman of the Council of Plants to see it through. The judges insist on it. But it is my sworn duty also to protect the person who saved us all."

Rem now seemed oblivious to Myuki's comments, as she continued to hum a song to herself. Sara gave her a quizzical look.

"Is that the only reason why she's here?" she asked.

Myuki shook her head. "Witness protection – you see, this is not just her spirit you see here."

Sara looked hard at Rem. "Not her spirit?" she asked. "Then what is she?"

Then it sparked in her mind as she sensed it - An incredible power that resonated through her. She stared at Rem. Rem in turned smiled at her in her tranquil way.

"That can't be!" Sara said. "Can it?"

Cindy chuckled slightly. "Remember who her great great great great great grandfather was?" she reminded her daughter.

"Wolfwood!" she gasped. "Wolfwood as a Plant! But how… I feel a nearly full Plant here – yet she's obviously… umm… dead…"

Myuki sighed. "This is my fault I'm afraid to say," she said. "As the Alpha ship was beginning to break up, I sensed what this woman had done. I was desperate to find anyway to save her for my sons – I attempted to do a matter-transference to the surface, much the same way Delta 2 had ejected your mother back in Detroit. But I failed, mostly because I did not explode."

Sara looked at her with a puzzled expression. "Excuse me?" she asked.

Myuki shrugged. "I had planned to use the extra energy the explosion would have created to do the matter-transference. But without this boost of power, all I could do was catch what I could of her. After we struck the ground, I was again surprised to find that I had survived the impact, as Plant 1 had melted the surface of the planet prior to our arrival, thus making for a soft landing. According to the observers' reports, Delta 2 had been on board all that time, and ejected himself prior to impact, though I had no prior knowledge of this. I was still in the dark as everyone else was, on how I had become pregnant in the first place, and had given birth to Vash and Knives."

"So, you saved her?" Sara asked. "I would have thought she would have vaporized."

Myuki looked at Rem. "I thought so too – she had been so far forward in the ship. As it disintegrated, I managed to save her soul, or so I thought. I attempted to use the same method I eventually used when I rescued Wolfwood's soul and placed it in a Proto-Plant. Again, I was wrong. For safe keeping, I brought her here, to the safe confines of The Source. There, I could tend to her and keep her safe until a way could be made to return her to the living world as I wished. But something happened that I was not expecting. It would seem that some of her did transfer in with the soul – enough to start a reaction with The Source. To our astonishment, she formed a new body around her soul. But unlike her first form, which was more human, Rem is now more Plantoid."

Sara sat down on the stone beside Rem. "Does she understand this?" she asked as she noticed that she was showing little signs of hearing what they were talking about.

"No," Cindy noted. "She thinks she is dead, and that she is a spirit. That was one of the reasons why when Meryl shot Rem in her dream, she did not die. Rem thinks she is already dead, when in fact, she was healed almost instantly by the force of The Source."

Sara placed her hand on Rem's shoulder. "Meryl told me that she hopes to travel on – to meet her dead boyfriend. This would be a lie to her."

Myuki sat beside her. "It is, unfortunately. We live outside of time, but we still have our limitations. The Plant named Horloge managed to travel back in time, and she did send many of your own group to the past, but it was by accident. If we wanted to find her Alex, or at least his soul, it would take some miracle to attempt such a feat since he was human. So even to us, it is much too late. Besides, she is still not truly alive."

Sara pondered this. "Her form was created by The Source – if she leaves The Source…"

Myuki nodded. "She dies, yes… Truly and figuratively… and totally."

Sara snapped a shocked look at the chairwoman. "Totally? As in complete loss of soul?"

"We've run tests," Myuki said with sadness throughout her speech. "If Roanoke had been able to take her out of here, she would have vaporized on contact with the normal world. It is as if she has become one with The Source."

Sara looked at Rem and sighed.

"You shouldn't be sad," Rem said. "I understand all that is going on."

Myuki stood up in shock. "You heard us?" she asked.

Rem giggled. "Of course – I am one with The Source after all."

"And The Source shall protect her," a small cat said as it came around the back side of the tree. "You should know that."

----------------------------------------

Vash sifted through the wreckage of the warehouse. The fire had pretty much wiped out any trace of evidence that they may have found. The explosion had destroyed the regen unit. Knives had returned to the Steamer, seeing that there was little else to be found to his mind.

Harrisburg was holding a scanner over the wreckage. He was examining the shattered remains of the crates. He found many to have been old storage units from the days of the SEEDS ships. Some were food stocks, others were ship's components. In other words, this had been another of many old supply buildings constructed after the crash to hold stuff - Nothing spectacular – probably unchecked in months or even years. A perfect place for a pair of rogue Plants to hide. He snorted as he put the device away.

"Is this standard fair to you?" he asked Vash. "This seems pointless."

Vash stood up with a containment clamp. "Actually, no," he said with a sigh. "I've never had anyone try to hide stuff from me by blowing it up – normally they're just trying to blow ME up…" He heard Meryl laugh slightly – he ignored her and stepped out of the junk pile.

"Perhaps it would be safer then if we leave investigations like this to my men when they arrive," the Marine said. "We're trained for such incidents – less chance of loss of life." Vash glared at the man. The Marine seemed to pay him no mind.

"Time is not on your side, Sergeant," Vash noted. "Even if your men arrived tomorrow, it may be too late."

Harrisburg snapped a look at the gunman. "My men could be here in an hour," he rumbled.

Vash shook his head. "And then what?" he asked. "If we let your Marines land, there could be serious loss of life."

"Like there hasn't been such already?" the Sergeant pointed out. "Have you never heard of commando tactics? We get in, we hit hard, we get out – end of story." He dropped a large metal plate he was holding and stepped out of the ruins.

Meryl stood beside Vash. "Something tells me that he doesn't quite like you," she said. Vash looked down on her with a smirk.

"Could tell that could you?" he chided. "Actually, I think it might also be that he's not too happy with his orders. Even with these 'knobs on, I can feel his unhappiness."

"I still can't believe a whole military force of Plants," Meryl commented. "It seems unbelievable."

Vash leaned up against a section of wall that remained standing. "I would agree, if we weren't in that very situation right now. This D'two has his own group of Plants, remember. And since they can all tap into The Source and create Angel Arms… the coming battle is going to be ugly."

The wall fell backwards. Vash fell as well.

The sergeant looked back at the small dust cloud rising from the wreckage. He grunted and walked to the center of the street. He pulled out a small device and keyed in a code.

"Deerstalker to Summit – Deerstalker to Summit. Reporting."

"Hey Ashton," a voice keyed back. The sergeant held the com unit out so that a holographic image could be generated. A girl appeared and he smiled.

"Hey Dia," he said with a warm grin. "I didn't know you were on com duty tonight."

"It's noon here, baby," she said. "What have you to report?"

He grunted again – almost out of habit. "I've made contact with _our hosts_."

"Umm, you don't sound too enthused," she barbed back. "You were expecting much out of this Vash the Stampede?"

Now he snorted. "Dia, honey… this guy is a clown. He is in no way the same man reported in the observer's notes – and his bother isn't much better - at least the Bernardelli reps are as reported. The local contact is someone I can talk with, but…"

"But what?" Dia prodded.

"She seems too involved with Vash to understand the real situation here." Harrisburg looked back at the warehouse junk. "I may have to follow my second set of orders sooner than I expected."

Dia looked shocked at him. "Ashton, you know you're only to do that with the permission of the SEEDS Security Officer."

"She's not here," he barked. He then remembered who he was talking to. "I'm sorry honey – I didn't mean to yell. The SEEDS officer is up on the Fifth Moon conferring with her mother."

"Then I would suggest you wait for her," Dia flatly said. "Remember who she is talking with, Ash."

"The high and mighty Cindy, yes I know," Harrisburg grumbled. He looked at the hologram and 'touched' her face. "You know I wouldn't do anything without reporting to base first."

The picture reached up and 'touched' the hand that was rubbing her cheek. Harrisburg smiled as he 'felt' the simulated stimulation of her hand on his. He raised the unit up so that he could kiss her on the forehead.

"I miss you honey," he said to the image.

"I miss you too, baby," she replied. "I'll see you in the morning – um, evening your time."

He grinned. "Who's my com-off at midnight?"

She laughed. "Grimsley," she chuckled maliciously.

"Oooh, not him… anyone but him!" He looked at the face once again and sighed.

"Sleep well, honey," he said.

"You too, baby." The unit then went dark.

"She was pretty!"

The sergeant looked over at the porch of the local grocery. Millie was polishing off a pudding cup as she was exiting the store.

"How long were you there?" he grumbled.

She smiled. "Not long – I saw you kiss her, if you mean by that. Who is she?"

Harrisburg wasn't expecting Miss Bubbly to show up – he couldn't decide to be either 'Mr. Master Sergeant Bull Dog' or the shy – 'Whoops! You saw me with my Girl' Marine.

"Um, ah… huh… That was my fiancée," he said while rubbing the back of his head. "She's a com officer at my base."

"Well, she's very lucky then to have such a nice man like you!" Millie exclaimed.

Harrisburg stared at the human woman. Mr. Master Sergeant Bull Dog – disarmed!

Meryl shook her head at the prone Vash. He had landed on the flat side of the wall, so he should be unhurt, but he was taking his time and acting as if he were really injured by the fall.

"Come on Vash, enough is enough!" she said as she slapped his knee.

"YAAAAA!" he shouted. Meryl leaped back not expecting such a shout – a shout of utter pain and torment.

"IT BURNS!! OH GOD IT BURNS!" he writhed. Meryl saw that he was clutching his left shoulder – almost tearing at the prosthetic arm.

"Vash!" she yelled and dropped to his side. "Vash, what is it?"

Goethe sat up. His small apartment in Violet Town seemed to drop away momentarily as he felt a wave of thought strike him.

"He's back – he's coming back!" he said to the walls. "But he doesn't want to come back, don't YOU SEE THAT!? NO! DON'T RETURN HIM TO THIS WORLD! MASTER, HE FOUND PEACE! DON'T DO IT!"

"Mr. Marine! Mr. Marine! Are you okay?"

Harrisburg looked up from his position. He was bent over in pain. Millie was holding him up.

"STAND UP SOLDIER!"

Knives was behind him, standing as if nothing was bothering him.

"How… you're a Plant… how can you not be feeling this?" he asked.

"He's my brother," Knives stated. "I know how his pain feels. Now come on!"

Vash rolled back and forth on the slab of wall. "NO! NO!" he was shouting to the sky. "NO, YOU CAN'T MIX ME WITH HIM! YOU CAN'T MIX ME WITH HIM! NOOOO!!"

"VASH!! VASH!!" Meryl shouted at him, her tears splattering across his shirt. She slapped his face twice, which seemed to settle him slightly.

"Meryl! Meryl, help me!" he shouted. Meryl looked down at him. He wasn't looking at her, he was staring up into the night sky. "Meryl! Please! Slap me again!"

"V-Vash!" she cried. She slapped him lightly, not feeling that she should hit him hard.

"No Meryl! HARD! HIT ME HARD!"

"Like this," Knives volunteered. He belted Vash numerous times in the face, making his nose bleed and cutting his lip.

"Knives! KNIVES! STOP IT!" Meryl shouted as she grabbed his flaying hands.

Vash rolled over. "Meryl! No, he's right… though when did you start wearing that ring?" he mumbled.

Knives shrugged. "I just put it on – sorry, I forgot it was there!"

"Vash, what happened?" Meryl asked as she moved around to tend to his beaten face.

"Yes, that is exactly what I want to know, Mr. Saverem!" Harrisburg barked.

"D'two…" Vash gasped. "D'two is doing something to me… Me and… and… oh god…"

The arm wriggled in the regen unit as D'two slid the rod further into its hole. He tapped the glass of the unit as he saw the dirt and grime that had built up on the limb burn off as energy flowed into it. A control readout chimed.

"Ah," he said with amusement as he read the information, "this was unexpected. Two for one! I guess that it was on his body for so long that some of him would be expected to be in there as well!"

"NO MASTER!" Goethe shouted in his mind. "LET HIM REST IN PEACE!"

He smirked. "Too late now!"

The arm seemed to liquefy and mold itself. The arm itself remained, but it now seemed to extrude into other bodily parts – shoulders – a torso – the right arm – a waist and hips – and finally, a head. It looked at its arms then looked up/down at the person who brought it back to life.

"Why am I here?" he coldly asked D'two. "Haven't I died enough to satiate your pallet?"

D'two grinned a wild eyed sneer. "What should I call you then? Vash II or Legato II?"

The blue-haired creature in the glass snorted. "Neither – I am neither Vash nor Legato, yet I am at the same time." He thought for a moment then sneered. "Just call me Janus…"

At Alpha Base, Wolfwood stood back. His mind had just been filled with all sorts of visions.

"This is bad. Very very bad!"

Harrisburg glared down on the prone gunman. "You leave me with no choice," he grumbled.

"No choice?" Meryl asked.

He reached behind himself and pulled out a Plant Snare. "Under the authority of the United Nations Space Marines, I now must implement my second set of orders. If my contact becomes a hazard to himself or to others, I am to incapacitate and arrest said contact and proceed to stage one alert. I am sorry."

Rem looked up. "Vash! VASH! NO!"

Knives felt as if he was slammed by a fast moving wall – he was tossed back a few feet by the shock of the snare as it hit him. A faint glowing shield had protected Harrisburg from the snare's effect.

Vash looked up at Harrisburg, then down at the net-like substance covering him.

"What the hell is this suppose to be?" he quipped.

The Marine looked at the snare then at Vash. "How can you be talking? The Plant Snare is supposed to disconnect you from The Source."

Meryl stood up and slapped the Sergeant. "Vash disconnected himself from this source, stupid! He's dying!"

Vash blinked.

"I… I did what?"

oOo

**Next Episode**

_**A tree grows in The Source **_

The Source is the life of all Plants

Without The Source, a Plant will wither and die

Vash, you fool - Why did you do it?

Without The Source, will you wither?

Will you die?

Are you braver than I, or just the fool you play?

Next Episode of TRIGUN: MOON CHILD - Chapter Fourteen - Vast Ash - Part One

Who will nurture your growth when you've severed your roots?

Elb Kinza, GENUINE DOORKNOB ©2003 DMS – Used with permission  
All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow  
Roanoke the Dream Master ©2003 S. Nordwall - Used with permission  
Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0311.23


	17. Vast Ash ¤ Part 1

**Chapter Fourteen**

TRIGUN:**  
****MOON CHILD****  
****Vast Ash**

**-Part 1-**

**By R. A. Stott**

It was amazing just how much life could be put back in a stale donut when it was dunked in a beer. Vash would have preferred fresh ones, but the baker had been one of the people forced to their deaths a few days before by jumping off the cliff west of town, and that his widow wasn't in the mood to make new ones, the two-day old ones had to do.

_**"Vash disconnected himself from this Source, stupid! He's dying!"**_

Meryl's words were haunting him. He sat on the porch steps leading into the nearly deserted saloon with his bag of semi-hard sinkers, 3 beers, and a 'borrowed' pedestal mirror that he had found at the vacated barber shop. He looked at his hair in the reflection and snorted.

"Black roots… damn, black roots."

Meryl sat down beside him. "Black roots?" she asked.

Vash swayed slightly. "The legend of the Plants says that they live out of time, right?" he said with a slight slur to his voice. "Not if they remove themselves from The Source - Black roots in our hair is the sign of this." He looked at his beer. "This… urm… this ish a new sensation for me as well…"

Meryl looked at him and brushed her hand across his forehead as she moved some hair back that had fallen across his face. "What? Being drunk? I've seen you drunk before."

He wavered. "Nnnno… that was a scam… that wasn't real… Hic! Didn't you know? Plants can't get drunk? 'Can't hold our liquor, and you sure haven't seen one on caffeine yet, h-have you?" Meryl shook her head, as the caffeine note reminded her of what Lexington had said of coffee and Sara.

Vash lowered his head. "This is wrong – all wrong… Meryl… I want you to leave me – never look at me again. If you stay by me, I'll only get you injured or killed. I couldn't stand that – y-you mean too much to me. And in my current condition, I'm probably not long for this world…"

His powers were off quite a bit, but his timing was still there – all bad. He raised his head just as Meryl laid a hard slap across his face, nearly spinning him completely around.

"Listen mister," she yelled, "stop it with the martyr complex! I'm not leaving your side, or leaving you behind! I'm here 'til death do us part, GOT THAT!?" She then rested her hand on the stinging cheek she slapped. Vash twitched expecting another shot, but found her touch caring and gentle. He looked up into her face, which was wet and streaky.

"I do not deserve you," he said to her.

She smirked. "You've got that right mister," she grinned through her tears. "But I still expect you back here by me when the trial is finished, okay?"

"Yes ma'am," he said quietly as she placed her head against his. He reached up with his right hand and placed it on her cheek. He cradled her head and felt her soft hair running through his fingers. Why had he taken so long to notice her beautiful eyes? He sighed.

"You know, it was easier to act goofy," he told her. She started to giggle. He joined her.

Knives sat at a table in the saloon with a whiskey bottle in front of him. He had already polished off half of it. He could feel the human side of his body get woozy from the alcohol in the drink. It made him nauseous. The fact that he now noticed this also disturbed him. Even though he wasn't the target of the Plant Snare, he was close enough to have his own connection to The Source disrupted slightly, and his body still tingled. The booze now only enhanced it.

_**"Vash disconnected himself from this Source, stupid! He's dying!"**_

The words rang in his head as well. Was using their natural powers to that extent as life threatening as Miss Stryfe had said? When he had seen his brother produce the wings of power, he had thought he wanted to have them as well – the ultimate power of Plants. But now…

_**"He's dying!"**_

He shook his head and slugged down another round of the whiskey.

"No matter, he said to himself. "The plan continues… With or without Vash the Stampede."

_**"Vash disconnected himself from this Source, stupid! He's dying!"**_

Harrisburg sat on a stone that had been part of the warehouse wall. He shook his head in disbelief at the Insurance Girl's words. He felt his cheek where she had slapped him – not that she could really hurt him. He looked at the remnants of the snare that Vash had simply removed from his chest and deposited at his feet.

"Why? What would be the drive to make a Plantoid willingly separate from The Source?" He pulled his communicator out and keyed up his base on the Second Moon.

"Summit here – you're early Deerstalker," the unit squawked.

"Grimsley, I need to talk to Dia," he told the com officer.

"She's off," he flatly replied.

"Then GET HER, Corporal!" Harrisburg barked. He looked over to where the doorway into the place had been and saw the silhouette of a tall girl there. It was Miss Bubbly herself – he grunted.

"What are you doing here?" he grumbled.

Millie shrugged. "I didn't have anything to do, and Miss Meryl and Mr. Vash looked like they'd rather be alone," she said half perkily. Even though he hadn't known her long, it seemed a bit out of place for this woman to speak that way to him. "Also, I wanted to see if you were all right, Mr. Marine."

He cocked his head and smirked. "You wanted to check on me?" he asked with a touch of a laugh.

Millie smiled as she entered the gaping hole that had once been a building. "You've seemed to be troubled ever since you dropped that net on Mr. Vash."

He snorted. "Its Plant business – I don't think you'd not know the answers."

"Try me," she said almost defiantly. "I've been with Mr. Vash now for almost two years, and I've been with Miss Sara and the others now for nearly a month – Plus my husband is now a Plant, so I'm probably the foremost expert on that question!" She thought a moment.

"So just what was the question?" she asked.

Harrisburg broke out laughing, which shocked Millie a bit, as it was high-pitched – not the deep baritone that he spoke in. He wiped his eyes.

He looked over at the tall Insurance Girl. "Okay – my question was what would make a Plantoid like Vash the Stampede – whatever the hell that means – voluntarily remove himself from The Source?" He looked at her as if looking over a pair of glasses. "You do know what The Source is, don't you?"

Millie giggled. "Of course I do, silly! I've been there!"

Harrisburg looked at her with a puzzled expression. "You have?"

She scratched her head. "Well, sort of – Meryl told me that we went through it to get back to this time from 1965… It seemed awfully yellow."

Harrisburg shrugged and nodded. "Yup… that's The Source…"

"As for Mr. Vash," she said as she sat down on a chunk of toppled wall, "it depends on what you mean – do you mean why did he have wings and all that?"

Harrisburg shrugged again. "Mostly – is that what he did?"

She nodded. "Mr. Vash came to save us the other day, but he was too far away, so he got wings and came for us – well, he came for Meryl, mostly."

"Miss Stryfe? Is there something between Vash and Miss Stryfe?"

Millie laughed again. "Not that Meryl would admit at first. It took her a while to realize it. But once she did…"

Harrisburg looked at his com unit. "Then he broke away from The Source to save her?"

"That's what Miss Miami said." Millie scuffed her foot on the dusty floor. "She said it was like pulling the pin on a grenade – sounds awful."

"Then he really did it?" The Marine shook his head while waiting for Dia to show up. "Why?"

Millie shrugged. "Miami said that he did it to save the lady that he loved. I didn't quite understand what she meant by throwing immortality away, but it didn't sound very good."

Harrisburg grunted. "It isn't – believe me – it isn't."

Millie rocked back and forth on the slab. "It sounds like you know what its like."

He nodded. "Yea… my mother… she decided that she would age along with my father. So, even though she could have remained in contact with The Source, she elected to sever her ties permanently. But it does things that were unexpected." He looked at Millie, who had her eyes locked on him. She gave a slight gesture to continue – to explain what he meant. He sighed.

"Severing the ties to The Source reverts a Plantoid genetically," he said. "She became human. She also became susceptible to things that Plantoids are immune to – like diseases and cancers. She died of lung cancer."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Millie quietly said. "I didn't mean to bring up something like that."

He held up his hand. "Hey, no sweat… I was thinking about it anyway. It felt good to talk to someone about it… Besides, with Vash doing what he did only reminded me about it." The com unit beeped. Harrisburg looked at it and then at Millie. She was now standing.

"Looks like its time for me to vamoose!" she said. "Tell your pretty lady goodnight for me!" She then walked out of the warehouse remains. Harrisburg watched her go as he held the unit up and keyed the imager.

"Hi baby," Dia said to him – she looked a bit groggy – like she had just been woken up. "What's up? Why the code one call?"

He looked down like a little boy who just got his hand caught in a cookie jar. "Hon, I think I just did the wrong thing with our man Vash."

--------------------------------------

Rem sat trembling. The feelings of Vash's plight and the evil presence that now surrounded him overwhelmed her and made her sit in a daze.

Sara sat down beside her. She looked up at her mother as she and Myuki floated up and sat on branches of the tree. She noticed that when they did that the tree seemed to pulse with energy.

"Huh… this… this tree," she whispered. "I hear… voices… Is this The Source?"

Cindy shook her head. "No, dear… this is only the confluence within The Source. Before Rem came here, The Source was simply The Source. We, the children of Angel 5, simply tapped into it and occasionally made contact with one another. But Rem's Tree has brought us together – all having the capability of talking with one another – she has given us a tighter community, and allowed us to talk with our fellow Plants we left behind."

"Meryl told me that it was lonely here for you," Sara said to Rem. She saw that Rem was looking at the cat in her lap and slowly stroking its black fur. She sighed.

"It is really," Rem replied. "I can exist here – I can even change my surroundings, but I can't hear them. I know that they are there, but I don't dare listen in. It is not my place…"

Sara sat back. "What do you mean it's not your place?"

"I feel like I'm the communications officer on a com service," Rem said with a shudder.

"You shouldn't feel that way Rem," Myuki said from her branch. "Nova has wanted to talk to you for some time you know."

Rem held her breath and looked up at the tree.

"Nova… Oh my…"

Just then a slight gust of wind brushed by them - Sara thought this was odd, being in The Source and all, but she figured that it was just a normal occurrence, until she saw the cat.

It was now standing in Rem's lap, its fur bristling and erect.

"This is bad!" it hissed. "This is evil! THIS IS BAD!!"

The breeze turned into a gust. The gust turned into a blow. The blow turned into a gale. The gale erupted into a hurricane. Cindy and Myuki grabbed onto the branches that they sat upon while the cat was sent flying and Rem and Sara clung to the slab of stone they had been sitting on.

The cat bore its claws and snagged the trunk of the tree. Rem shouted in pain, much to Sara's surprise.

"I am sorry, Miss Rem!" the cat bellowed. "I meant no harm!"

Sara saw three red lines on Rem's right arm, and the wind was sending droplets of crimson flying.

"Hello ladies," a male voice said. "I hope I'm not intruding."

Rem looked up at the man as the wind subsided. "You! YOU!" she cursed. Sara was shocked. From what she had been told, Rem never showed anger like this. She saw Rem stand up with a resolved on her face that looked as if she could do someone some serious harm. But she then saw her collect herself and take a step back. "What are you doing here Janus?"

"Is that any way to treat a guest?" he asked. "Besides, a part of me is actually glad to see you, Rem Saverem."

Rem looked as if just the mention of her name by this man was an attack on her. "You desecrate the soul of my boy, sir! How dare you!"

He snickered. "Perhaps my master was wrong – he shouldn't have spent his time beating down the soul of Vash the Stampede – he should have brought misery to yours, Rem Saverem. After all, you were his mentor – his guide… the woman at the other end of the leash. I would have not been surprised to see that he was being lead by a human, but since you're obviously not one… at least fully… that makes you no better than Knives or D'two I guess…"

Rem opened her mouth, but then thought better of uttering what she was going to say. Janus laughed.

"You were about to expound about how you never lead him on, weren't you?" he coldly suggested. Rem huffed.

"If you do truly carry the soul the dead Legato, then I pity you," she finally said as she let go of her clenched fist. "But I beg you – set my Vash free."

"Free?" he exclaimed. "I would find it easier to remove one of my arms – oh, bad pun there. But, as you can see, I am both of them, yet myself – a conglomeration of mutual souls – we will see just who the dominant one here is soon enough."

"WHY are you HERE?" Sara growled as she played with the handle of her nightstick. "Or are you simply here to torment her?"

"Like I have any choice to be here," he chortled. "I'm currently in a regeneration unit, so part of me is here anyway. I am here because you wanted to see Vash again. And this tree doesn't help any."

Rem looked back at the tall flower covered tree. "This? Why would this be a problem?"

He stepped up to it trunk and placed a hand on it. The cat hissed. He paid it no mind.

"It is not that it is a problem, Rem. Your tree is the core to our existence. Without it, we would merely be adrift in a void of energy. The rivers of time feed us – it can drown us as well – remember that Remembrance." He laughed again. "Such a Californian name."

He felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked over to see that Sara was using her nightstick to get his attention.

"Okay buddy – explain. How are you here?" she asked. "You're a new Plant, yet I sense that you're also not."

He held up his left arm and flexed his fingers. "Why this of course. My master has had this ever since Vash buried Legato – or had you not heard how Knives shot his brother's arm off just prior to the destruction of July? - On my master's orders of course... He wasn't about to let this go to waste, even if Legato went and got himself killed. He had the arm retrieved. He had it nurtured and fed within a sealed regeneration unit, making sure that it would retain its strengths. But he wasn't expecting that the human side – the Legato side – would survive within it."

"If you are within a regen unit as we speak," Cindy asked, "is Delta 2 nearby?"

"D'two," he corrected, "is standing before me, yes. He sends his regards."

"We should try to trace him back to his source," Sara noted as she brought the nightstick up to Janus' chin. He chuckled.

"My master would not approve of that. And D'two needs his privacy."

He briefly vanished, then rematerialized behind Rem.

"I hold the strengths here," he said. "I have the speed and accuracy of the Stampede, and the mind control of Bluesummers."

"But Vash's soul – Legato's soul – they can't be mixed like that," Rem cried. "You two were nearly polar opposites!"

Janus turned. "The plan of my master was if he could not persuade Vash to join his side, he would create a Vash that would. All it would take is the proper training, and the new Vash would be just as he wanted him to be."

"Never!" Myuki yelled. "Vash is a pure spirit – his can not be tainted!"

Janus looked over his shoulder at her. "It can be, and has been." He then looked down. "And yet, you are correct... What does he call it… ah yes – the elusive mayfly of love… the Legato side of me is laughing, but my Vash side sees the wisdom in that." He looked up.

"The time is now – I am ready…"

Sara looked at him with concern.

"Ready? Ready for what?" she demanded.

"Emergence, my birth from the bulb I was born in. It is time for me to come forth…"

Myuki stepped before the man. "You are a paradox – you can not be. You are not true with The Source!"

"I beg to differ," he said. "Has Vash not broken his ties to the all encompassing Source? So if he isn't using his feed from it, then I might as well use it, right? After all, you would not deny a fellow Plant contact with The Source, would you?"

Myuki stepped back. "You know I couldn't do that."

A smug look crossed Janus' face. "Yes, of course – only the HUMANS can do that, isn't that right? And you wonder why my master is fighting for our freedom from those weak flesh and bones bipeds. Now, if you'll excuse me…"

With that, he vanished.

Sara wheeled and stared at Cindy. "Mother time I fear is short – what can I do? I must know - is there a weakness I can use on your brother?"

Cindy leaned against the tree. "Honestly honey… I wasn't expecting that we would be against him. He's grown much stronger since the last time I had to punish him…"

"Punish him?" Sara asked.

Cindy shrugged. "I always was treated as the older sibling, even though my number was 4 and his is 2. I was responsible for him. So I was the one who had to reprimand him if he did anything wrong…"

Sara rubbed her chin. "You know, that sounds an awful lot like someone already knew that Uncle Two was, ummm…"

"Troubled?" the cat suggested.

Sara pointed at it. "Good one," she agreed then returned to her mother. "Just how did you punish him?"

"I would convert myself to our basic form – the Angel 1 form all true Plantoids can obtain. It is a form that you can not become, I'm afraid though."

"Because I'm not fully Plantoid," Sara noted to herself. "Can you show me?"

Cindy looked about a touched worried. "I'm not sure – I've never done it before here in The Source… the energy might be too much."

"I will regulate the flow," Myuki suggested. She stepped away from the tree and formed a large sphere. Cindy then entered followed by Sara. Rem and the cat watched from outside the dome.

Cindy crossed her arms and concentrated. Her form shifted and changed. Wings formed on her back, and her body took on the form of what at first look almost like a large moth. Sara had to blink a few times to realize that it was actually the speed her body was moving in that was blurring her image. She started zipping about the sphere as if she were an overly pixilated hummingbird.

"I would then surround my brother within myself like this," she transmitted telepathically. She then dropped on top of Sara, encasing her in her energy field.

Sara looked about. The feeling was warm and caring. She was puzzled.

"This would punish Uncle?" she asked.

"This would scare him to death," Cindy said.

"Did you do anything else?"

Cindy sighed. "Not really – other than forcing him into his containment sphere, all I ever had to do was cover him with my energy. He could never escape, so that may have enhanced his fears."

"Cease, Cindy!" Myuki yelped. Sara noticed the chairwoman straining to hold back the energy that wanted to flow through the shield to the base Plantoid that surrounded her. Cindy immediately jumped from covering her daughter with her energy and reverted to her normal form.

"That was some light show," the cat said. "It almost looked painful."

Sara shook her head. "Not at all – in fact it makes me wonder about my Uncle. Why would he be so afraid of something like that?"

--------------------------------------

Kinza watched the movements of the fleets between the planet and its moons. The three Earth Defense Sphere groups that had massed just outside the orbits of Deneb 1 and the moons were still waiting there as the evacuation of Federation personnel was completed. He could see that two ships – his own mother ship Forrestal, and a sister ship, the Nelson, were still in orbit. He would listen in on the chatter coming from the satellite system from the planet as well. Panic was running across the bandwidth as the news of the strange lights and the destruction they were causing was being spread across the globe by the satellite operators. Gossip was the real terror he noted, as many were guessing at what the real fault was, and what should be done about it. He found it interesting that half of the communications still blamed Vash the Stampede for the outbreak, about half of the other half of broadcasters said that it was impossible for it to have been the legendary Humanoid Typhoon, as he couldn't be in so many places at once (he was shocked by these people – they were actually making sense!), and the other quarter group was too confused to know what their own names were, let alone know that another city was gone, and that another one had its residents decimated. He shook his head and punched the com off. He leaned back and rested. Waiting for Sara was boring, yet necessary.

He had just closed his eyes to take a nap, when the globe that was the Pilot's House to the shuttle was bathed in a pulsing red light and a klaxon blared loudly. He righted his seat and pounced on the controls to silence to row being made by the com system.

"What the hell is going on – outgoing fire?" he read on the alert screen. He punched up his tactical readouts then simply looked up at the planet that loomed overhead.

"Oh frack," he said.

There had to be twenty beams of energy coming up off the surface of the world, all curving along its upper atmosphere, all heading somewhere towards the planet's western section.

The night lit up over Harrisburg's head. He looked about as the streams of energy shot by him and continued west.

"Baby… going… do…" Dia said as her communications were disrupted. Her image would freeze then move a little then freeze again as the signal was corrupted by the energy.

Out in the desert of the western wastes, a lone figure stood holding one of Sandusky's shot guns. His black jacket flapped crazily in the winds being stirred up by the incoming beams. He cocked the gun with one hand, while brushing back his light violet hair that stood swept back off his head. His golden-green eyes looked up at its target as the energy of all the other guns converged above him. He raised his gun and converted it into a massive Angel Arm cannon.

"To my brethren who have come to stop my master, I bid you a sorrowful adieu," he said in a telepathic message to all. He then screamed a scream that could be heard for hundreds of iles around him, yet no one heard – they were too horrified by what they were witnessing to hear. In one town though, they heard. They heard because the same shout was being made by a man of peace who was witnessing first hand in his mind what was being perpetrated.

"NO! DEAR GOD, NO! THEY'RE OUR KIN! DON'T DO IT!" Vash shouted.

Meryl clung to him as she watched the deadly glowing light converge west of them. "What is going on!?" she cried.

"No! NO! NOOO!" Rem screamed. She clutched her face and looked up at the tree in horror. Sara looked about like she could hear something, but could not tell just where it was coming from. She saw Myuki and her Mother as they too stared at the tree. When she looked up as well, an upper branch was shaking violently.

"DIE TRAITORS TO THE ANGEL FIVE! DIE!" Janus shouted, as the built up energy was released from his arm.

The Nelson veered about in a panicked move to avoid the massing bolt of energy that was building below her. Briefly, her scanners had told her captain that a twelfth power source was heading his way, and that his ship would not be able to withstand such a blow. His order for emergency warp speed came only a second before the orb of energy was directed towards its true target. The Nelson had its engineering section removed instantly, and most of the upper hull ripped open to the vacuum of space. The remaining forward section drifted away, dead.

Forrestal retreated quickly behind the Fifth Moon as the beam continued on its way, now augmented by the added energy of the ruptured ship's engines and the anti-matter cells that powered them.

Harrisburg stared at the light that was leaving the planet. "DIA! NO!" he shouted.

"HON…!" The image of Dia froze. It no longer was refreshed by any signal from the Second Moon. It then scrambled then faded out.

The beam bore into the heart of the moon. At its core it struck iron, which caused the beam to fragment. Large chunks of stone burst from the surface of the planetoid as the initial impact zone the beam created grew in size. Vast amounts of soil and dust were being thrown into space, as was stone and debris.

Kinza watched in awe. It looked as if the moon was being ripped inside out. What moments earlier had been a solid object in his window off in the distance was now an expanding cloud of dust. He quickly scanned the area.

"Damn!" he said to himself. "They're gone… they're all gone!"

Wolfwood sat down with a thud. "That murdering son of a bitch!" he cursed. He looked up at the judges, all of whom were busy discussing the situation.

He stood up and looked about. Photon had her head on the table as she cried her soul out. Any other Plantoids he could see were simply in shock or shaking their heads at the carnage they all had just witnessed.

"We've got to get this bastard!" he shouted and started to exit the chamber.

"The witness is not excused," one of the judges ordered. Wolfwood reeled about and stared at the small woman who had said that.

"Pardon me?" he asked.

"The witness is not excused," she repeated. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To GET this bastard before he kills us ALL," he shouted back. "Where do you THINK I'm going!?"

"You are a witness for this trial – not an officer of this court!" she reprimanded him.

"Then I am no longer a witness on this trial!" he barked. "Someone has to stop this mad man, and I want to help!"

The chief justice looked down on Wolfwood. For someone who was only a few weeks old, she looked the part of an old prosecutor. "If you are no longer a witness to this trial, we would have no recourse. We would have to release you to continue your journey into oblivion – is that what you want?"

"Oblivion? What do you mean oblivion?" he sniped.

"Your soul would be released by the Plantoid-child that you currently reside in," another judge said. "It would then take its natural course it was destined to head when the Chairwoman first intercepted it."

Wolfwood realized what they were saying and fell to his knees. "Damn you… damn you all… You locked me into this body – robbed me of my natural death… Damn it – I didn't want to die then! And then it looked like I might have a second chance! A second chance to prove myself to them – to HIM! And now you say I'm STUCK HERE while the world of held hostage to THIS!?" He gestured to the image being shown over their heads of the rubble and dust that was all that was left of the Second Moon.

"You were already given that second chance, Mr. Wolfwood," another judge stated. "If you remember, your first Plant-provided body was used in the past when you lived out a life on Earth with your wife. A second body was given to you when you allowed your first one to think it had become old. We can not give you a third one."

"BUT MY WIFE IS STILL OUT THERE!" He felt a surge of anger swell inside him.

"I am sorry, but if her time has come, then so be it," the court official coldly noted. "We judge the situations as they are presented to us, we do not create them."

"The court is bound to uphold the Antarctic Treaty and the rules of the Plants and the Humans, is it not?" another voice said from the corner of the room. "Specifically that all life is to be protected?"

"All life is precious," the judges chorused.

North stepped into the light. "Yes, yes – Life, liberty and the pursuit of mayflies. I submit to you, that you are overlooking the fact that if Wolfwood could bring in this new threat, you could have the ultimate witness."

The judges looked at one another. "We will debate this. Stand by…"

As they started to discuss this new option presented to them Wolfwood stepped over towards North.

"Rob, umm, I'm glad to see you and all," he cautiously said, "but you WANT me to go out there? Against him?" He pointed to the man who was still looking skywards on the screen and who was now reverting his Angel Arm back to the shot gun.

"His name is Janus, from what our little spies tell us," North said as he pulled a sheet out with a dossier. "He was made from that lopped off arm of Vash's that Knives had lanced onto Legato's body. When Delta 2 stuck it into a regen unit, Legato's DNA was still in the arm, so we have this mixed puppy here."

"He produced one hell of a blast," Wolfwood said as he cooled down from his near meltdown before the court.

"Umm, not bad for a southpaw," North noted as he flipped through some shots. He looked closely at one of them then slipped it behind some others. "Whoops – weren't supposed to see that one yet…"

"Then you've seen the future?" Wolfwood asked. "You know I can beat him?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute!" another North said as he came out from the darkness the first one came from.

"Oh god, I hate when this happens," the first North huffed in exasperation.

"What is going on here?" Wolfwood yelped.

"Don't worry Nick," the second North explained. "Time traveler stuff – these things happen from time to time."

"They certainly do," yet another North said. "Give me your time relevancies please."

The first North breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness – you're the 0-0 me?" The third North nodded. "Great! Sometimes these things can get so confusing."

Wolfwood stepped back. "So confusing? You mean this has happened before?"

North the Third shrugged. "I guess the worst I've had was nearly 100 of me converging and yelling that they were the path to follow – it can give you a headache! Relevancies please…"

"0-1," the first North said. "Wolfwood goes forth to go after Janus."

"0-2," the second North reported. "Wolfwood stays and Vash goes after Janus."

North the Third nodded. He held out his hands to them. "Results?" he asked. Each man handed him a report PADD. He read over them.

"You seriously thought that this was a better way to go?" he finally said to the second North.

"Well, having a little further time slip than 0-1 here…"

North 0-0 shook his head. "You know the rules – I can only read the first page of these things. My decision is 0-1 then."

The two Norths nodded then vanished, as did their reports that the third North had held.

"That's it – it's definite," Wolfwood exclaimed. "You Observers are just flat out strange!"

North smiled. "We do have our… uniqueness, yes."

The chief justice looked over her podium at the two men below. "Your words ring true, observer. We will allow Wolfwood to attempt to apprehend this Janus."

Wolfwood smiled and slapped North on the shoulder. He turned to leave then stopped.

"Crap! Why am I happy to head out on this job? Rob, what do you know about this yoyo?"

North shook his head. "Can't tell ya, buddy. And it's not because I know what will happen – that was my fellow Norths that knew that information. I'm the one that's been here all along."

Wolfwood looked a bit confused. He acted as if he were counting something on his hands, scratched his head then looked back at North.

"Doesn't that mean that you'll have to make the same trip those two did that just were here soon?" he asked.

North looked at him a bit oddly. "No… I already chose the relevance to follow."

Wolfwood turned slightly then looked back at him again. "But you didn't read the whole report by that other North!"

North shrugged. "Rules are rules. If it can't be said in one page, then there were probably too many variables to make it usable."

Wolfwood attempted to turn away again, but another question hit him. "But… wasn't that you?"

North rubbed the back of his head. "Yea – I should have known better."

Wolfwood took one last glance back at the man totally confused. He waved his hand at him and lifted off the ground, vanishing in a teleport move.

Sara heard the crack. She grabbed her mother and Myuki and moved them away from the tree as a large branch snapped off and crashed to the ground in a violent thud.

"No! No! No!" Rem cried as she buried her face in her hands. "No! This is horrible… horrible… oh god…"

Sara looked at the severed branch. Each leaf – each flower was cinders and ash. Some blew off just by the lightest breeze.

"I must return," she said to the others. She looked back at her mother. "Are you sure – surrounding him in an energy field will disable him?"

Cindy took a moment to answer as she remembered what she was referring to. "It is what he feared most – other than the smilies…"

Sara winced. He wasn't the only one. Damn those smilies.

She hugged her mother and Myuki. She rubbed Rem's back, as she was still hunched over. She sprung up and wrapped herself around the officer wailing in pain and desperation.

"He must be stopped! He must! The hurt – the anguish…" Rem heaved heavily. "I felt their pain – their sudden shock – there were nearly 600 of them on that ship…"

Sara looked at her. "Ship? It was the moon that we felt…"

Myuki touched Sara's shoulder and shook her head. "She felt the death of the starship before she felt the moon die. Do not forget, she was and still is more attune to the humans."

"Not just the humans," Rem corrected through her tears. "There were others aboard that ship – aliens, animals… I even felt the confusion of the main computer. Myuki, how much longer must I live in this universe?"

The chairwoman stood up and looked down on Rem. "I am sorry my child… I have no answer for you."

Rem slapped her hips making the cat jump. "If I must endure this then… I can always follow you out, right? Then it would all end, right?"

Sara grabbed her shoulders and turned Rem towards her, then held her face in her cupped hands. "Now you listen to me – Don't think like that! I know this is painful, but think about this before you do anything drastic! Your Alex is waiting for you somewhere. Think about Vash and Knives. How do you think Vash would feel if he knew that you committed eternal suicide?"

Rem held her breath as she looked into Sara's eyes. She settled and smiled, resting her head in the young officer's right hand. "You almost sounded like Alex there," she whispered. "I'm sorry Sara… thank you."

"I'll make this as fast as I can," she told her.

"Sara!"

She looked back at her mother, who had yelled her name in a panic. "Mom?"

"Quickly child, you must get out of here!" Cindy ordered.

"What? What has happened?"

Cindy was looking at the sky, but had come over to her and was lifting her up by the shoulders. "No time to ask questions, my daughter – return to your vessel – QUICKLY!"

Sara knew that her mother's orders were to be followed to the letter. She crossed her arms and closed her eyes. Her head swirled a bit, and when she opened her eyes again, a space suit greeted her – an upside down space suit.

"Sara!" Kinza barked from behind his visor. "I hope you're done in there, because we've gotta get out of here!"

Brandywine and Eighty-Nine could be seen behind her. OneO'Five was on a step ladder removing the rod that connected her to The Source. She looked down and remembered that she was naked, and kept her hands crossed. Finally, as a last reminder that she was no longer connected, her hair, which she had not noticed had been smooth along her back, flopped down and obscured the vision of the Tomassamassa. The C-Frame was pivoted around, and the world returned to a normal look.

But why was Kinza off the shuttle? Her answer came as they were trying to remove the glass bulb off her. The base-ship was shaking.

"What's going on?" she sent out through thought transmission as Kinza handed her a towel.

"We've got a force nine shockwave heading this way!" he yelled through his com speaker. "It will flatten anything on the surface of this moon!"

Sara stopped as she was getting out of the regen unit's base. "What did you say? Mother! FATHER!" She looked at the Unit Two Plant above her. Cindy was in there for a ten year cycle – how could she be removed safely in time? How could those in the Coldsleep tubes be removed?

"How soon?" she asked.

Kinza now had her by the hand and was pulling her. "Twenty minutes or so – my captain thinks he has a plan that just might work, but we can't be here when he tries it! Come on!"

Brandywine and OneO'Seven dragged Sara over to where they stored her clothes.

"No! No! We have to save my mother!" she was crying. "My father!"

She felt a sharp pain in her cheek. She looked back from where her head had started from at the glare she was getting from Brandywine.

"Get a hold of yourself, Officer!" the artist snarled in her mind. "We are doing what we can in this situation, including the safety of those who can not be removed! But as an officer in the SSF, you need to be in UNIFORM!"

She held up her limp suit and handed it to her.

"Better listen to her," Kinza said. "I know my captain – he's crazy! He probably does have something up his sleeve, but I wouldn't want our being here to upset it, right?"

Sara lowered her head and nodded. She slipped into her uniform as the others waited. As she did, she noticed a few of the windows were getting dark. She saw Kinza trotting over to one to look out. He grabbed his helmet, and she could see he was talking to someone. Now something was flashing off his visor, and she could see that the window was being strobed by an outside light source. She walked over to the Tomassamassa's side as she finished zipping up the last of her armor. What she saw she had seen earlier, only not this close.

The strobe was from one of the running lights of the starship that they had passed on the way to the Fifth Moon. It was hanging just over the base by only a few meters.

"Okay, sounds like a plan," Kinza said into his earpiece. "We're ready for deployment when you are."

"We'll activate them as soon as the shuttle clears the base then," she could hear slightly. "The captain called in the fleets and is preparing a counter blast to weaken the shockwave. Four of the ships are already helping us deploy the shield spears here, and a few are heading for the Third Moon to protect those ships there – they won't get the strike for another hour…"

"That's a roger Frean," Kinza said with a grin. "Tell Roy he comes up with some beauts. I'll catch ya later." He looked up at the officer and took her hand.

"Come on – best be going," he said.

They headed towards the docking port. Sara took one last look back at the Plant her mother was in. The internally drawn smiley grinned back at her.

Damn!

Sara entered the shuttle and watched Kinza and Brandywine head for the forward pilot's house. She turned to see if anyone was coming along, but found the door sliding shut behind her. She could hear the air being increased in the cabin as well. Her ears popped.

"Kinza?" she asked as she headed for the pilot's house. "Why isn't anyone else getting on board?"

Kinza was busy punching switches. "They're all staying behind – we can't guarantee total protection, so they're staying to attend to repairs just in case."

Sara turned his chair to face her. "You're not lying to me, are you?"

An angry stare greeted her. "Madam, I pride myself at not having to lie. Besides, I can't guarantee that WE'LL survive this! This shuttle can do sub-light, but not warp." A beep interrupted him. He keyed a switch, and the 3-D astrograph brought up the image of the remains of the Nelson. The shockwave reached it and blasted it into splinters.

"That could be us next," he snorted as he turned back to his work. "Ten minutes."

--------------------------------------

The bag of donuts and two of the beers were spread across the dirt in front of the saloon. Vash stood on the porch, his head against a support and Meryl clinging to his chest. He held her with his left arm as he continually pounded the beam with his right.

"Damn him, damn him, damn him!" he cursed. "All those people – all those lives – I feel like I killed them all!"

"Well, you didn't, so get over it!"

Vash looked over at the familiar retort. The black wings fluttered in the dimming light of the afterblast. It was almost a relief to see him again.

"I'm going after the bastard who just did this – care to join me?" Wolfwood asked. Before Vash could say anything, the black angel was decked by a flying Millie.

"Honey! You've got to help Mr. Marine!" she was crying.

Wolfwood looked up from under his wife. "Marine? You mean you have a marine from the Second Moon here?"

"Oh my god," Vash and Meryl both said at the same time. He stepped off the porch with her still clinging to his chest. When they stood in the street, the blasted moon was almost centered on the horizon. Harrisburg could be seen in the middle of the street, his silhouette blocking only a small part of the glittering remains of the expanding dust.

"DIA!" echoed down the road.

"Vast ash…"

Meryl looked up at him. "What? What was that?"

Vash stared at the exploded moon. "24 years ago – I overheard someone – just after the destruction of July… they said my name meant Vast Ash… they were right… THEY WERE RIGHT!!"

oOo

**Next Episode**

_**The duty of an Observer is to observe** _

**But when is it time to stop observing and become involved?**

**Fireworks –**

**Death –**

**Collateral damage –**

**Threat to the welfare of the many –**

**All these and more The Observer must watch, but ignore their natural tendency to leap in where angels fear to tread**

**An Observer's life is a lonely and painful life**

**But sometimes, an Observer can only watch so much**

**Next Episode of TRIGUN: MOON CHILD – Chapter Fifteen – Vash Ash – Part 2**

**One can only be numb to reality if one's soul is truly dead**

Elb Kinza, UNS Forrestal, Frean Lar, Roy Strom, GENUINE DOORKNOB, The Observers ©2003 DMS – Used with permission

N'ya ©2003 S. E. Nordwall - Used with permission

All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow

Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0311.23


	18. Vast Ash ¤ Part 2

**Chapter Fifteen **

TRIGUN:  
**MOON CHILD  
Vast Ash**

**-Part 2-**

**By R. A. Stott**

"What the hell happened?"

Miami spun about startled. She had not expected Dallas to be up, let alone recovered enough from the bullet wounds to get out of the regen unit by himself. She wondered if Lexington had assisted him.

"They… they just blew up the Second Moon," she said. She looked up at the large man as he stood over her.

"Why would they do something like that - Just to prove a point?" He looked about the lounge on the Steamer. "And why did I hear screaming? I should have heard nothing while in the regen unit."

Miami covered her ears – the screams were still echoing in them to her. "That was the cry of over 1000 of our brothers and sisters," she winced. She looked up at Dallas to see him staring down on her in shock. He reached down and held her to his chest. She curled into his arms and released her penned up feelings.

Vash stepped out of the clothier's store. He never found a jacket like his famous red one – there was never much demand for that one – so he 'borrowed' a long black leather one that had extra bullet pouches.

"I thought I had put this behind me," he mumbled as he buttoned up the front of the coat.

"You did," Wolfwood said as he forced himself to smoke a cigarette. He coughed as it singed his lungs. He finally spat the weed out in disgust. "Damn it all."

A loud metallic clank caused him to jump. He spun about to see Millie holding up his Cross Punisher.

"Honey… I appreciate it, but…"

He walked over to his old tool of choice and placed his hand on it.

He didn't fall through it.

He started to slap it with the palm of his hand.

"Well I'll be damned… Here, let me hold it a moment."

Millie released it into her husband's hands, but as soon as she stopped touching it, it fell through him and crashed to the ground.

"Crap," he grumbled.

"You can't hold weapons?" Vash asked him.

Wolfwood sighed. "Looks like it. Odd that I could back in Oklahoma."

Millie looked at the cross between Wolfwood's legs. "Then maybe I should carry it for you honey?"

Wolfwood looked at her. "Absolutely not! Vash and I are going after a man who just blew up the Second Moon!"

"Which is why," a deep baritone voice thundered as a huge hand reached down and easily lifted the heavy cross up, "this should be left to us professionals!"

Wolfwood turned about to see Harrisburg holding his Punisher up with one hand. It popped open and deployed its machine gun.

"My, you're a big one," he said with a wide grin on his face and sweat rolling off his brow.

Harrisburg grunted. "Nice box gun you have here mister… Let's go."

----------------------------------------

Forrestal hovered over the old SEEDS ship that sat permanently on the surface of the Fifth Moon. A series of launch tubes opened along her underbelly.

In the shuttle that was still attached to the ship's docking port, Sara watched the starship fire a row of long black and red tipped poles into the ground about 100 yards away from them. A second row was then impinged into the soil behind the first. A third row was then laid out.

"Triple shields – okay," Kinza noted. "I hope that will be enough."

Three small ships landed near the poles and deployed what looked like stinger tails from their rear sections.

"What are they doing?" Sara asked.

"Power," Kinza answered. "Can't run a deflector grid without power." He detached from the ship and brought the shuttle up.

"Mr. Kinza," the com unit said. "The shuttle will not be able to escape the shockwave – position yourself at the lea of the moon to the event."

He nodded. "Understood," he replied to the order. As the ship cleared the top of the poles, three levels of energy could be seen surrounding the SEEDS vessel.

Sara watched from the pilot's house. "Mother… father… be safe…"

"Here's hoping we get the same chance," Kinza noted.

"What is THAT!?" Brandywine yelped. They saw she was looking at to their left side.

"Huh… droid tugs," Kinza said.

Six large blocky ships were towing a sizable chunk of rock over the moon. A smaller ship was darting about in front of the asteroid.

"It looks like the pilot craft is having fun moving that chunk of real estate!" Kinza cracked.

"What are they going to do with that?" Sara asked. As she did, she saw the larger starship ascend from the surface and head out for the interception point.

"Gun fodder," Kinza said as he brought the shuttle about. "That's what they're going to use to make the back blast to lessen the shockwave.

As the window of the shuttle rotated, Sara and Brandywine caught sight of the fleets that were behind them. An armada greeted them.

"By the Source!" Brandywine gasped at all the ships. They all were heading in the direction Forrestal was going.

"All ships into firing position," came over the com unit. "Ready shock cannons and laser batteries."

The ships left the shuttle behind. As they watched, they could see the large asteroid getting smaller as it was rushed away by the tugs towards the wall of flotsam heading for them from the Second Moon.

"YEAAAA!" Brandywine yelled. "I HATE RUNNING!"

Kinza cleared his ears of the ringing left by her bark. "Unfortunately, there's little that we can do – we don't have any weapons on this ship."

She lifted her shotgun up and cocked it. "Yes we do."

Kinza shook his head. "Just how do you expect to use that in a vacuum? I mean, I understand that you can convert that thing into one heck of a cannon, but you need to breathe too, right?"

"I'll wear a space suit!" she retorted.

"Doesn't the lady who made up the cannon need air as well?" Kinza sat back in his chair and groomed his beard. "Besides, just making the cannon would tear the suit up – you'd be out of air after a second, and you'd implode!"

"I'm a PLANT, fuzz ball! We don't implode!"

Kinza considered her. "I can't say that we'll be able to do anything, but at least being ready wouldn't be a bad idea – okay, suit up. But don't bring out the cannon until I say you should. This is a last resort sort of thing, right?"

She jumped with glee and kissed him on the cheek. She then bounced into the back cabin to don her suit.

Kinza shook his head and glanced up at Sara. "Artists… come up with some of the weirdest ideas." He then noticed an odd expression on the officer's face.

"Uh oh… What did I say?"

Sara turned about in the small walkway in the pilot house pondering out loud. "You said 'doesn't the lady who made up the cannon need air as well,' remember?"

Kinza squirreled up his face. "Yea – so?"

"Well, think about it!" she exclaimed. "We're pretty sure that Sandusky the Forge created the shotguns using isotopes made from only one Plant."

Kinza checked his monitors then looked back still confused. "Okay – excuse me for being dense here…"

Sara started parading back and forth up the narrow walkway. "Don't you see? If this is so, and the one Plant was used, all we need do is take the piece we have with us and regenerate it! The newly formed Plant then can shut down all the other guns!"

Kinza pulled back on the control yoke and brought the shuttle to a set orbit over the moon. "I don't know, ma'am… It would certainly shut down the first set of guns, but if I were in this Sandusky's shoes, I'd make sure I made some with a secondary source. Plus, then there's the fact that we'd be taking our one working unit we do have and putting it out of service just when we might need it!"

"We do still have the black and silver handguns," Sara noted.

"At one third the power of the shotguns," added the Tomassamassa. "Come to think about it, I wonder where Knives got his material to make his isotopes…"

A beep told Kinza that the ships were about to attempt their countermove. He brought up all his scanners and readings. An image of the fleet appeared over his astro-navigator. Forrestal could be seen at the core of the armada. She was the largest of the ships, but hardly armed the same way. The flotilla bristled with guns and launchers, while the larger Forrestal seemed practically naked.

"Umm… don't get to see these too often," Kinza said out loud to himself.

"What's that?" Sara asked.

He pointed at the image of his mother ship. "They're bringing out the snake lasers."

Six panels on either side the long flat center section that made up Forrestal's mid-ship slid open and deployed a pair of weapon platforms each. Coiled on their surface were twin laser cannons that had cable-like bodies. As the platforms locked into position, the lasers lifted up as if a cobra being controlled by a charmer. They twisted and moved as if they were snakes – an aptly named system. Sara then noticed that the same type of cannons were also on the bottom side of the ship as well.

"Ah, the Halo approach," Kinza said as he watched the emitters take on a circular position around the ship. "They'll all fire at the same time to a focal point in front of Forrestal, and then her main forward batteries will be used to direct the beam where they want it to go…" He swallowed. "Umm… in the – er – same manner used on the Second Moon… Damn, they stole our thunder!"

Ahead of Forrestal and the other ships, the tugs pulling the asteroid adjusted their trajectory to match the computer model for the best results. The small pilot ship finished final corrections and zipped back towards the fleet.

"All ships stand by," was broadcast to all ships. "All systems to automatic fire – sync up with the S.A.M. System. All shields and deflectors on stand by."

"T-minus ten seconds to fire," another voice intoned. "Nine, eight, seven, six - primary ignition started…"

The ring of lasers that surrounded Forrestal glowed a cherry red. They then sent thin beams of light to a point that intersected one hundred yards before her bow. All the other ships locked their targets and centered large cannons on the asteroid.

"Three, two, one…"

The thin lasers were replaced by a flash of energy that caused the emitters on the snake lasers to recoil slightly as they sent their augmented light rays towards the contact point.

"FIRE!"

In a synchronized move, just as the beams reached the point they intersected, Forrestal's twin pair of forward lasers fired their retargeting beams, sending a massive bolt of energy towards the towed asteroid. At the same moment, the fleet ships surrounding the flagship fired off their barrage. Ships with laser turrets added their fire to that of Forrestal's. Ships with modified shock cannons fired walls of solar energy, making their own smaller shockwaves ripple through space.

"Torpedoes, FIRE!"

"This is what will really do the trick," Kinza noted.

From under Forrestal, three rounds of six torpedoes launched and followed the beams towards the large iron rock asteroid.

"What's so special about those?" Sara asked.

"Each one has an ounce of anti-matter in them," Kinza told her. "This should be some fireworks."

The beams struck the asteroid and began to heat it up, vaporizing small sections of loose soil. The tugs began to rupture from the debris and radiation being generated below them. Then the torpedoes struck.

Eighteen suns burst forth before the ships. The light was seen on the planet as well. The energy that the iron in the asteroid was absorbing intermixed with that of the imploding/exploding anti-matter to create a chain reaction. On Kinza's screen, the tactical report showed just what they wanted to see – a reverse shockwave cone – one going in the opposite direction – being sent through the large oncoming one from the rendered Second Moon. The void left by the detonation left a hole for the Fifth Moon to safely pass through.

Kinza was grinning from ear to ear. Sara stood shaking her head.

"That was amazing," she commented.

"Roy does come up with some loo-loos," the Tomassamassa chuckled. But before he could do anything else, the sensors chimed a warning. "Aw nuts," he murmured. "Shuttle to Forrestal – Shuttle to Forrestal – Hey Roy, you'd better check your starboard scanning platforms…"

Sara looked at the astro-navigator. She saw that the wall of material that was the frontline of the shockwave was now hitting the atmosphere of the planet beside them. A massive amount of dust was burning up in the upper air currents, causing an amazing light show to those below.

"This is almost the way it looked back then," Vash said as he watched the streaking chunks of rock and dust vaporize in the sky above them.

What those below could not see, but the scanners on the shuttle could, was that the atmosphere was causing a wake to form in the shock-surge that was rolling across it. Some of the debris was being redirected, and it was being sent towards the Fifth Moon.

"What are you still doing there?" the captain's face demanded from Kinza's control console.

Kinza held his hands up. "Hey, I can still get to the lea side of the moon when needed – but the lea just moved! Besides, at our position, we give you a better triangulation point."

"Always a weapons expert, ea Mr. Kinza?" Roy remarked. "Okay, send us your data."

Kinza smirked. "Damn straight," he chuckled. "Hey back there," he then barked to the rear cabin. "Get ready, we just might need your services. Are you suited up yet?"

Brandywine looked at her hand with the space suit's glove on. "Damn, this isn't going to work! I can't touch the gun!"

Kinza looked back at her through the sliding hatchway. "Take the sleeve off at the shoulder then – you won't need it anyway. That way, the inner liner of your suit will seal itself along the shoulder, and the cannon won't be hindered by the suit.

Brandywine saw the twin clasps of the release and pinched them together. Instantly the arm popped off the suit and slid off.

"Okay, now what?" she asked.

"Pressurize the suit – if you feel pain in your arm, depressurize and adjust the inner liner so it won't pinch." Kinza glanced out his forward window. "Better hurry though – the junk is almost here!"

Brandywine brought up the suit's pressure. There was some pain as the metallic and rubber fabric did grab her skin a bit, but not enough to stop her. She grabbed the shotgun and started to convert it to her Angel Arm. Kinza slid the pilot's house's door shut and sealed it.

"Okay ma'am," he told her over the intercom, "I'm putting up a force field over the hatchway and programming it to allow the snout of the cannon out into space."

Before she could ask anything, the hatchway slid open as the shuttle turned about to show it side towards the oncoming debris. She swallowed and nervously placed the muzzle out the field – no reaction – good.

"Okay," Kinza said to her. "It looks good. Hold your fire unless needed though – the shield over the surface ships is strong enough to handle minor blows. We just need to protect against the really big stuff. And try not to melt that furniture back there, please? They take these sorts of things out of my pay check."

"Swell," she grumbled. "I'll just sign my name to this mosaic I'll be doing back here, thank you very much!"

----------------------------------------

The car was stuffed with bodies. Wolfwood, Meryl and Vash were in the front seat, Harrisburg took up much of the rear seat by himself, let alone the cross punisher as well, but Millie was there too, along with her large stun gun. The major portion of the weight was on the rear axle.

"I'm really surprised at Knives," Wolfwood murmured. "Why wouldn't he want to come?"

"He doesn't feel right with his gun anymore," Vash explained. "He can't convert it, so he feels useless."

"That's not the Knives I know," Wolfwood snorted.

"And just how would you know that?" Harrisburg grumbled from the rear seat, causing Millie to lean to one side fearing the worst. "I've read the reports on the man – his psy-levels are one of the highest of our kind – his marksmanship is only matched by that of his brother, and his domination over all was nearly complete. Did I miss anything, Mr. Wolfwood? Or should I say Chapel? I was debriefed on you as well. I know your history with him."

Wolfwood spun about in the seat, causing Meryl to nearly fall into Vash's lap. He pointed his finger at the Marine.

"Listen asshole, I have this finger and I'm willing to use it!" he snarled. "How the hell would YOU know what my situation was!? I had damn near four hundred hostages to worry about!"

"Nicholas! Ashton! Stop it!" Mother Millie scolded the two men. They looked at her in shock.

"We have enough trouble without you two fighting one another!" She cocked the stun gun. "Don't make me use this!"

"Well he started it," Nicholas wined as he turned around.

"And I'll stop it, Nicholas D. Wolfwood!" Millie shouted at him. Now it was the Marine leaning to one side to avoid Hurricane Millie.

"Yes dear…" Wolfwood slid down as far as he could in his seat. He glanced to his side and noticed Meryl staring down at him. "Cluck cluck cluck," he said to her.

Meryl slapped her hands across her mouth – this wasn't the time to laugh.

Wolfwood sat back up in the seat. "You know, we could have been there by now if we had flown," he said to Vash.

"Maybe… If I could make the wings again…"

Wolfwood looked at Vash's back. The black jacket would have shown off those white wings like they were neon. But nothing was there.

"Great… Do you have any plan?"

Vash sighed. "Well, the first thing to do is to get Sergeant Harrisburg to his drop-ship."

Wolfwood looked back at the man in the back seat. "Does it have weapons?"

Harrisburg grunted. "Full arsenal – but mostly for defense. It's a scout ship, but they're better than nothing. Besides, I want to try out this beastie." He patted Wolfwood's prized cross. The preacher gritted his teeth.

"Sure – have fun Skippy!" He returned to his forward position. "Jar head!"

"Cross pusher!"

"BRAINLESS APE!"

"BENEDICT ARNOLD!"

Wolfwood blinked. "Who?"

"TRRRRAITORRRR!" Harrisburg snarled.

Wolfwood spun about and got a face full of Millie.

"ENOUGH!!" she shouted as she grabbed both men by the earlobes and pinched hard. "APOLOGIZE! BOTH OF YOU!"

The two men weakly said "sorry" and were then thrust back into their respective seats.

"Good! Now we'll have peace and quiet while we go to Mr. Harrisburg's ship, right?" She was talking in her cheery sweet voice again, and the mix of the two Millies clashed severely.

"Jeeze, she can be scary!" Vash whispered. Meryl clung to his arm wide eyed but couldn't stop staring at her partner. She just gave a slight nod and agreed.

The car pulled around a large set of stones a few iles to the west of town. Its headlights glared on the dark gray hull of a winged ship. It bristled with antennas and pods.

Wolfwood whistled. "Nice – A little spiky with all the antennas, but I bet it gets great mileage! What are those under the wings? Bombs?"

"No, I told you, this is a scout ship," Harrisburg said as he got out of the car. "Those are drop tanks – fuel cells."

Wolfwood shrugged. "Just as long as it can get us out there. We've got to stop this bozo, now!"

Vash stepped out of the car and closed the door. Meryl looked at his hand and at the shut door.

"This is as far as you two ladies go," he quietly said. "Where we're going – what we're doing – will be too dangerous to have you two there."

"Vash…" Meryl began.

"Honey?" Millie wavered.

"Chickie, listen to broom-head for once, please?" the preacher said as he placed his favorite sunglasses on, even though it was dark. "For once, he's making sense!"

"Chickie?" Vash bemused.

Millie shrugged and blushed. "He called me that because I was always so good with our chickens."

"That's my Chickie the Chicken Manager! Take care honey - I'll be home for supper!" With that, Wolfwood climbed into the small cabin behind the cockpit that Harrisburg was climbing into.

"Vash…" Meryl started again, but found his finger touching her mouth.

"Shhhh," he said to her. "You know I'm right. Not to put it too bluntly, but you'd only get in the way. This Janus character could use either you or Millie as bait or hostages. It's something we couldn't afford right now."

"But Vash, I want to be there – I want to be there to help!"

Vash stood tall. "Are you listening to anything I said? He could use you to our disadvantage! Meryl, I couldn't stand that." He noticed she was fiddling with her small Doorknob device which she had merged onto the chain that held the SEEDS pendant Rem had given her. He shook his head. "And I don't think even that would stop him. He's too powerful."

"INCOMING!!"

The shout from the cockpit caught everyone off guard. Vash reached into the car and started the engine with one hand and pulled Meryl over to the driver's side with his other.

"Drive! Drive like there's no tomorrow!" he told her. "Seek the safety of the Steamer!" He kissed her and leapt aboard the scout ship as it began to lift off the surface. In the distance, a beam of light was reaching high into the night sky. Meryl felt her face where Vash had kissed her and stared at the beam.

"Meryl… MERYL!! DRIVE!!"

Millie was shaking her violently. She recovered her blurred sight in time to see that the beam was now coming down on top of them. She slammed the car into reverse and spun it about. She managed to clear the rocky outcropping just in time for the energy to slam the surface just behind her.

"Oh Meryl! There's more of them coming!" Millie reported. She was hanging out of the back seat watching the sky behind them.

"Are they shooting back at us!?" Meryl shouted.

Her answer came as the beam zoomed over their heads and struck outside the town. Another followed from the north that blasted the water tower. Meryl screeched the car to a stop as the next round struck the butcher's shop.

"I don't think they're shooting at us," she yelled. "I think they're shooting at the Tunnel Steamer!"

Another round struck the spot where the shop once stood. Now there was a crater that they couldn't see the bottom of. Meryl spun the car about again and floored it out of town.

"Meryl, shouldn't we go back a help out?" Millie screamed from the floor of the back seat.

"Think Millie!" Meryl cried. "If the next blast hits the Plant in the Steamer, the whole town will be vaporized! US included!"

"But our friends! Lexington, Dallas… Miami… even Knives and Boston are back there!"

Meryl concentrated on her driving. She refused to look back, though from the lights behind her, she could tell the beams were digging deeper into the ground.

Kinza watched his scanner and cursed under his breath.

"Damn! What are they doing down there?" he grumbled as the beams streaked across the skies of the planet.

"Where are they targeting?" Sara asked.

"Looks like that town you were in – what was it, Olympia City?"

She looked down on the Tomassamassa and was about to say something just as the shuttle swayed and yawed as the outer ring of the hole in the shockwave passed over them. The tunnel through the debris obscured the view of the planet and the bombardment that was taking place.

"Life forms!" the communication system squawked. "Zero zero seven mark fourteen!"

Sara looked about. "What was that?"

Kinza was flying over the readouts and brought the astro-navigator to the position called out by a fellow pilot. Three white dots were converging on a green speck in the passing wreckage.

"Rescue mission – you didn't think we wouldn't attempt saving who we can, did you?"

A small boulder whizzed by them and headed for the shielded ship below. The rock splattered across the deflector and vaporized. Kinza noted the output of the Scat Back attack craft that was giving its power to it was down a few degrees.

"Umph – a small rock like that making the system drop like that – that's not good…" He was interrupted by a signal from his scanners.

"Whoa, big one…" he said as he keyed the com unit. "Life forms! Two seven zero mark eight four nine – large contact. We are stationary, can not assist – repeat we are stationary, can not assist – over!"

"Roger that shuttle," a reply came back from a small ship that buzzed by them. "Looks like the forward section of a frigate – we'll check it out." Two other ships followed the first.

More alarms went off in the pilot's house. Kinza read the monitors and looked ahead of them.

"Uh oh… That's trouble…" He said as he pointed towards Forrestal. "We're loosing our tunnel sooner than expected. Looks like they're readying another round."

"Heads up people!" Brandywine yelled from the cabin. "Large chunks of moon heading this way!"

Kinza positioned the shuttle above the base and set the thrusters to anchor their location.

"Okay, let me show you something Brandywine," he keyed to her. "Look out the doorway."

She leaned out and looked at the rocky chunks spinning about and moving by at a worrisome pace. She also saw the few that were now approaching them. As she did, one of the spinning stones was illuminated by a red spot.

"Do you see a red targeting spot on that rock out there?" Kinza asked.

"Sure do!" she replied.

"Good. When it turns green, shoot at that spot."

"When it turns what?" she asked. But just as she did, the red dot turned green, and she did not hesitate to fire at it. The stone split into four sections and passed safely by them.

"WOW! That was neat!" she cried with glee. She then saw the red dot again and took aim at it. The rock this time was much larger and spinning wildly. The spot would blink green momentarily then switch back to red. She held her breath and readied her aim. Just as it turned green, she fired. The rock again fissured into smaller sections and safely impacted the surface.

"Oh frack," she heard over her earpiece. "That's a big one… a really big one…"

She looked out the doorway. Even through the rubble-cloud that was moving along, she could see a large section of Second Moon parting through the mess. The side facing the outgoing junk was busy collecting a large swath of material. It was almost large enough to be a new moon on its own at this rate.

"Yup – that is a big one, ain't it?" she replied. "Where do I shoot it?"

"Can't – not yet. Got another problem with it."

She tapped her earpiece. "What?" she asked as she didn't take her aim off it.

"Life forms on the rock – a large section of ship is on it - I'm reading at least 50 still alive on that!"

"Aw crap," she said as she could now see the gleaming metallic form on the slab of stone. "How are we going to redirect that?"

Kinza pulled on his beard and smiled. "Good choice of words, my dear, good choice!" He began to plot numbers on his board and looked at his model running beside him on the astro-navigator. He then punched his data into the targeting computer and sent his green laser to a target on the asteroid.

"I want you to put all you've got into this shot, hear me?" he said.

Brandywine looked around. "Full power? Are you sure? I'll melt the furniture."

"Better the furniture than killing everyone on the base below, and maybe we'll get those survivors down safe as well."

She shook her head and got down on one knee. She targeted the green spot and readied to fire.

"Are you sure about this shot? It's awful low on the rock…"

"Yes ma'am!" he replied. "And you'd better get that shot in quickly, or we'll be the first to get squashed!"

She crept towards the door a bit more and brought the cannon up to full bear. Outside the shuttle, the paint blistered as the muzzle radiated heat. Even the pilot's house was warming up from the gun. When she fired, Kinza had a hard time compensating for the kickback that the cannon created. Her shot struck the center of the green spot, but as the ship rolled, so the beam of energy moved up the side of the asteroid. It moved back down as the shuttle returned to its proper angle.

The shot started the asteroid spinning and rotating on its axis. As it approached the shuttle, Brandywine ducked her head waiting for the crunching of rock and metal to start. When it didn't come she peeked up and saw it over top them, the long narrow section she shot still glowing red as it slowly spun away from them. Also, the flat side that had accumulated the loose moon rubble was coming around as the asteroid tumbled and dipped like a large flying disk.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding!" she exclaimed as she saw just what type of spin her pilot has made her do. The asteroid was going to miss the base below, though small chunks of loose rock was raining down from underneath the slab of moon surface and making the shields flash and flare. But the type of rotation and the spin placed on it was going to give it a flat landing – it pancaked its soft flat side on the surface of the Fifth Moon roughly a mile north of the base, sliding to a stop after churning up a massive cloud of dust.

"Forth Scat Back group to the downed section now!" Kinza ordered into the com unit. "The section on that rock has no shielding! Heads up BW!"

Brandywine looked back out the doorway after admiring the precision landing. Two more large masses were heading towards them.

"Show time!" she grinned.

----------------------------------------

Meryl looked back at the town. It was now an hour since the last beam of energy had struck. Dawn was starting to break to her east. She gazed west to see if she could glimpse anything happening out in the desert that would give her any indication what Vash and the others were doing. She sighed and shifted the car into first gear.

Pulling into town was not easy. Large boulders now were all over the main street in, and the crater where the rain of fire had fallen was massive.

"Meryl," Millie whispered, "the Steamer!"

She pulled along side the depression. The sides were smooth and glazed from the massive heat the energy that fell on it generated. But nothing was visible at the bottom. A hole on the western end of the crater showed where the sand worm tunnel had been. The opposite side seemed covered in a cave-in.

"They must have been vaporized," Meryl said mostly to herself.

"But Meryl, there was no explosion," Millie countered. "Lexington would not have given up without a fight."

Meryl considered this. "And with all that pounding they were giving this location, it wouldn't be surprising if they did move on before getting hit! Very smart, Millie! And since we have Mr. Boston's car, we just need to follow the tunnels to catch up with them!"

"The WORM tunnels?" Millie whimpered as she hid behind Meryl's back.

Meryl glared over her shoulder at her partner. "Show some backbone, Millie! After all we've been through, a silly sand worm shouldn't bother you!"

She turned the wheel and hit the throttle. The car sputtered and coughed then died.

"I guess we ran it too long on idle out there," Millie suggested. Meryl slammed her head against the steering wheel.

"E-thane?" the crotchety old man asked at the fuel depot at the other end of Olympia City. "Ain't an E-thane dealer in these parts – nearest one is a hundred iles south o'here."

Meryl nearly dropped her jaw. "No E-thane? What kind of fuel depot are you?!"

The man held his hands up. "Hey, don't complain to me – it's them S&O engines… E-thane engines get such great ile-age that they put the few E-thane dealers in this area out of business! 'Sides, that fuel isn't easy to make!"

"Really?" Millie cheerfully asked as Meryl pondered the ground at her feet. "Why is that Mr. Gas Man?"

The man spat. "It's made from rendered thomas guano, that's why!"

That was more than what Meryl needed to hear. She grabbed Millie by the arm and started walking back towards the hole in the ground.

"Gee Meryl, what about Mr. Boston's car?" Millie asked as they left it behind at the fuel depot.

"Believe me, its safer there than with us," she mocked.

"Really?"

Meryl just grumbled something unprintable.

The familiar sounds of the scuffing clawed feet of thomases made Meryl stop in her tracks. She looked behind them and saw Knives leading a pair of them from his mount on a third one. He stopped and looked down on the two ladies. He then tossed the lanyards to the bridles to Millie.

"The Streamer is about ten iles to the west," he told them. "I will be following the tunnel that the crater opened up. You can use these two if you can find some Ollies to sit on. That is unless you know how to ride bareback."

Meryl noticed what Knives was talking about. Neither of the thomases had saddles.

"Of course I do! I taught all my kids how to ride bareback!" Millie exclaimed. Knives pondered her, as did Meryl.

For some reason, Meryl suddenly felt jealous. Millie had a full life already – children to be proud of already – memories of a family already. Why was all this suddenly rampaging through her mind?

Knives just shook his head and smirked. "Either way should be fine – the Steamer is our best bet to find the others." He started to ride away.

"Knives!" Meryl yelled. He stopped and looked over his shoulder at her.

"No, I don't…" he said to her.

Millie looked between them confused. "Huh?" she asked. "Don't what?"

Knives chuckled. "Your partner was going to ask if I knew anything about Vash's condition – I don't. But what I can tell you, he is rife in torment. There's little else I can feel of him right now." He continued on.

Meryl felt as if her heart was in her mouth. She just stared at Vash's brother as he rode down the street. It was when she felt herself being lifted up by her friend that she awoke from her stupor. Before she could even peep, Millie had placed her atop the thomas and was tossing the lanyard over the beasts neck. She tied the loose end to the other side of the bridle then steadied the creature so it wouldn't toss its rider.

"Now Meryl, remember to use the sides of your feet to keep from falling off the horse – I mean thomas," she said as she set up her own mount. "Once you're steady on him then try to use your knees. Otherwise, just don't squeeze too hard, otherwise you'll spook the animal, okay?"

Meryl kind of squeaked an answer. Millie got a determined look on her face and nudged her ride forwards to follow Knives. Meryl sighed and urged her thomas as well.

The first sun was now breaking the horizon when they reached the hole. They saw that Knives was at the edge of the hole almost opposite of the tunnel they were heading for.

"I wonder why Mr. Knives is over there?" Millie pondered.

"That's why," Meryl said as she pointed at a small stone that her thomas had knocked into the depression. It slid down the side of the crater to the bottom. "We'd probably break our necks if we tried to go down that directly."

"Then how is he…" Millie didn't finish her thought before Knives started his thomas into the hole. The clawed feet of the beast only scratched the surface of the fused glazed ground of the crater. But forward momentum kept them from falling over. They skirted the actual bottom of the depression and built up forward speed to make them actually leap into the tunnel, which was about mid way up the opposite side.

"I guess we're next," Meryl swallowed.

"Looks like fun!" Millie exclaimed as she moved her thomas into position.

"But Millie…" Meryl yelped, but was too late to stop her partner as she made her run. Her thomas slid slightly askew, and bounded up the other side off center a bit, but still managed to get into the tunnel.

"Silly girl," Meryl said to herself. "Wasn't she the one worried about worms in there?"

Meryl drew in a deep breath and looked down the hole. The tunnel seemed iles away. She let the air out that she was holding and gritted her teeth.

"HEYAA!" she yelled.

The thomas stood there.

She looked down at the beast, which was giving her a 'you gotta be kidding' expression. She grunted.

"Look, I don't blame you, but HEEEYAAA!!" She dug her heels into the thomas causing it to bolt into the hole. She guided it along the tracks that the first two had followed, attempting to hit Knives' marks more than Millie's. Going down the depression, she felt her stomach lift into her chest. Since she needed to keep to the edge of the bottom to avoid the loose rubble collecting down there, she leaned slightly to one side to help steady the thomas. Coming up the other side, she now felt herself sag on the beast's back.

Ten yarz from the tunnel the thomas tripped. A loose stone had slid down the hole and had caught the beast's toes. It slipped launching the rock away like a missile. Meryl found herself flying off its back as it tumbled. She saw the tunnel drop away from her as she arched over. A feeling of total helplessness swept over her as she expected the end to come shortly – why did these things always feel like they were in slow motion?

The floor of the tunnel – she could see now that at least she was about to splatter herself across it and not slide pathetically down the crater's wall.

Something jerked her as the ground raced up to greet her. She found herself in the grasp of two strong arms. The sudden yank caused her to loose her breath momentarily. She gasped for air as she was righted. She could see that her thomas was laying crumpled at the bottom of the crater, its neck bent in an unnatural way. She continued to wheeze, the lack of oxygen in her lungs preventing her from crying at the sight of the creature she had just sent to its death.

"Human scum," she heard. She raised her head to find she was being held by Knives, and he was looking up. She followed his stare to the edge of the crater above them. There she saw a pair of boys pointing at the thomas and laughing. She then felt Knives tense up.

"They tossed that rock on purpose," he snarled. Meryl felt him shake with anger, and his thomas groaned.

"What is that?" Millie yelped as she attempted to keep her ride from spooking. Meryl looked down at the beast's feet and saw that rocks near them were vibrating. She looked behind herself to see that the crater's wall was fracturing. She turned towards Knives to find him glaring with a terse expression on his face.

"Knives! NO!" she shouted as she grabbed his shirt and shook him. He blinked and looked down at her with a look of surprise.

"They tried to kill you," he said quietly. "Vash would not have been happy if that had happened."

Meryl pushed him away and held onto the pommel of the Ollie saddle. "They're just kids… leave them alone." She managed to let her feeling have their way briefly as she saw the poor thomas at the bottom of the depression again. She felt Knives grunt and growl. He obviously did not share her feeling on the situation.

"Very well," he said. He turned his thomas to enter the tunnel. "We've got to get going if we intend to catch up with the Steamer. Let's go."

Millie watched them enter the dark void. She looked up at the rim of the crater at the boys. She then followed Knives and Meryl.

Out of sight, one of the boys slid down the crater and joined the thomas at the bottom with his neck in the wrong position. The other simply fell to the ground.

----------------------------------------

Vash could feel that the evil force was still ahead – almost waiting for them. He looked at Wolfwood and his wings. Should he present his as well? Could his feeling of a lack of power hinder him? Will he be able to do any of this without being connected to The Source? Will Meryl be safe?

The fist that connected with his chin rattled his head like a clapper in a bell. He rubbed it and looked up at the clenched fingers of Wolfwood.

"Hey," the preacher barked, "keep your mind on the matter at hand!"

"I thought that was what I was doing!" Vash snapped back. He rubbed his chin again. "But thanks…"

"No problem," Wolfwood sneered. "Always happy to issue a wake up call."

The scout craft hugged the desert floor, bobbing and weaving around rocks and bushes. Harrisburg had his tracking system locked on the location of where he knew the final burst of energy that had taken his Dia had come from. He bore down on the spot and grew angrier and hotter. It was then that a warning alarm made him pull back on the yoke of the control system. The two in the rear were sent tumbling through the cabin as the scout craft lifted higher as it gained altitude. A beam of energy had been fired at them and caused the course correction. Harrisburg retaliated by deploying four missiles to the source of the burst. He then quickly landed the craft without seeing if they had hit their target.

"I take it we've arrived," Wolfwood cracked as he held his head from where it had smacked a bulkhead. "Sometimes I wish I was an angel – then I would have passed right through that wall…"

"Are you sure?" Vash asked as he checked on the rounds in his gun. He slapped the chamber shut and climbed out of the craft.

"What the hell did he mean by that?" Wolfwood pondered. He shrugged and headed out as well.

He only got his head out the door when Vash grabbed him and yanked hard. As he tumbled, he saw Harrisburg leaping from the cockpit with the Cross Punisher on his back – but only momentarily, as the entire area was engulfed in a firestorm caused by the scout ship exploding.

They rolled along the ground as the fuel cells and the few missiles left aboard erupted. Wolfwood finally looked up at the framework of the ship.

"I guess this means we're here for the duration?" he asked.

"Only if you want to take your chicken wings and fly out of there," Harrisburg rumbled.

"Listen you jar-head," Wolfwood bellowed, "you've been on my case ever since we started out on this little fun trip! And that's MY Cross Punisher, thank you!"

"You want it back?" Harrisburg barked back. "Oh, no – I forgot. YOU can't HOLD it!"

"KNOCK IT OFF YOU TWO!" Vash yelled. "CONSIDER THE BAD GUY – NOT EACH OTHER!"

Vash jumped up and attempted to convert his gun. The sides popped off the barrel and the isotope spun up. But the actual transformation only surrounded the gun and Vash's hand. He sat back down and looked at the contraption.

"Well now, that's not good," Wolfwood said. "Can it fire?"

Vash held it up then targeted the area where the last shot had come from. The gun did manage to fire a sizable beam in the right direction, splitting rocks and shrubs along its fire-path. Vash looked at it again.

"We'd better move," he said as he stood up in a crouch and scampered away.

Wolfwood and Harrisburg looked at one another. They too jumped up and ran, just as a large shot was returned to where Vash had been.

Harrisburg belly flopped onto the sandy ground and deployed the launcher part of the Punisher. A quick targeting of the source of the beam, and he sent a pair of small missiles away. He was up and running before they struck home.

Wolfwood took to the sky, using the dusty cloud of smoke as a shield. He pointed his finger in the direction the missiles were going, and waited for them. He could 'feel' them, even through the thick dust. When they detonated, he added his own energy to the explosion, firing several bolts at the fireball.

Vash moved forwards as Harrisburg did. He kept a number of yards apart from the Marine so as to not make two targets one. He zigged to one side and planted his back on a rock just as another round of fire was sent in their direction. The far end of the boulder he was against vanished. He spun over the top of the stone and fired a return salvo.

"Oooh, you just about got me with that one Vash the Stampede," a voice he had not heard in some time said to him in his mind.

"And you, my ever faithful servant," the voice now addressed Wolfwood. "How are you doing in your new life?"

"LEGATO!" Wolfwood shouted as he pummeled the area that the last beam had come from. "YOU HAD ME KILLED!"

"Actually, my master had you killed," the voice said as it mutated from the emotionless droll to a slightly perky one that made Vash stop in his tracks. "But you defied our master and sided with the enemy, so you had to pay!"

"He showed me a better way!" Wolfwood yelled as he continued to blast away, now making the shots more random in an effort to hit his target. "I would have preferred his way over his any day!"

"Such nonsense," the Legato voice returned. "You show your human frailty in such a way – even after you ascended to be a higher creature, you still side with them. Such foolishness!" He raised his gloved fingers and snapped them.

A ground swell of energy jumped from the surface directly below Wolfwood and wrapped itself around the preacher. Feathers were torn from his wings and his whole body writhed in pain.

"Now then, where to put you?" the voice modulated again. Now it sounded like the voice that had brought on the destruction of the Second Moon. "You know, for someone who had such fine marksmanship in life, you're terrible in your afterlife…"

"Gee… I'm so… SORRY… I couldn't – AH! – accommodate you!" Wolfwood cursed.

Janus smirked. "Yes, indeed… Ah, I know where I should put you now – a symbol to all who defy my master or would attempt to do harm…"

"WOLFWOOD, NO!" Vash shouted as he came over the top of the rock and aimed his mini-cannon. He now could see the man who was doing this savagery. He could feel his arm ache. He could feel his mind burn in flames. The light blue hair, swept back like his - the warped grin of his brother sneering back at him – the massive Angel Arm Cannon that was being leveled on his friend above them.

"Say goodnight, preacher!" Janus said with a wicked grin on his face.

The energy band that surrounded the cannon shot forwards and off the unit like a smoke ring. It joined with the bands that held Wolfwood. Vash could have sworn he saw his friend get shredded as it struck. The black clothes on his body tore and frayed as the electricity was smashed through him. It finally reached out and snagged him by the wings and carried him away like a bag of trash.

"WOLFWOOD! WOLFWOOOD!" Vash yelled then let fly a series of bursts from his mini-cannon – first at Janus, then at the ring holding his friend. But the last shot was too far away for accuracy – he held back a second round to prevent hitting him.

"Well now," the smug laugh of Janus filled his head, "you actually hit me that time – shame I deflected it with my own shot."

Vash snapped his stare back at Janus' position – a ball of energy was swirling around – half black – half white – yin-yang – it vanished like a popping balloon.

"I've been through this before – I know how this ends!" Vash snarled.

"Really? Do you now?" Janus laughed. "Actually, I believe it isn't you who knows how this will end, but a friend of yours who does. I do hope she gets back soon. I'm afraid I may have messed her visit with 'mummy dearest' a bit."

A loud metallic clank caught Janus' attention just then. Without moving, he glanced over his shoulder through the dust cloud beside his Angel Arm.

"Checkmate, sucker," Harrisburg grumbled. He was holding the Punisher up with one arm straight at Janus' head. He was less than a few yarz away.

"Mr. Marine, that is a simple bullet firing gun – it can not get through my defenses," Janus snickered.

Harrisburg smirked. "You've been away from home too long son. This is what an advanced Plant can do."

Vash stood agape as he watched the arm Harrisburg was holding the Cross Punisher with start to form over the box-gun merging it into his body. The familiar ring of energy spread away from in front of the arms of the cross. The ball of energy though that was in the front of his cannon seemed more in Harrisburg's shoulder though.

"You see, I don't need an isotope of a brother or sister to form mine! And I will take out the one who killed my Dia!"

Janus began to laugh as he stared at the ground at his feet. This only angered Harrisburg, and Vash could feel the energy building in his arm.

"What's so funny, monster?" the Marine snarled.

"Go ahead – shoot," Janus laughed. "You'll just be killing everyone Vash knows if you do!"

Wolfwood struggled with the ring as he continued to be dragged through the air.

"Damn! I feel as if I was drained of my power!" he cursed. "Where is this blasted thing taking me? I've got to get FREE!"

He managed to loosen his right hand. He then placed his index finger against the band that held his body. He concentrated all his energy into that finger and pulled the trigger in his mind. A small bolt snapped the band, freeing is arms and legs. He looked over his head at the ring that was dragging his wings. He aimed at it and fired again.

"Oh crap – that was wrong…"

The ring splintered, but released its energy at him. He felt every part of his body roast under a torment of hell's fire as the explosion that surrounded him consumed his body.

He fell from the sky.

He managed to look about as he fell.

"Damn – why here? I thought I knew this place… sadistic bastard…"

A spire. He was heading for the spire.

The children were being massed in the courtyard of the church. Their guardians, the few who had stayed behind after the others had been called away, the strange people in the odd uniforms lay piled to one side of the yard, most smoldering from a blast from the woman who had gathered there with her weird deformed arm. She grinned as she stood with her eyes closed.

Above them, something hit the church – something was impaled on the spire.

"Oh… that's gonna leave a mark," Wolfwood grunted as the world went dark.

Vash dropped to his knees as he heard the children wail.

"They're ORPHANS, DAMN YOU!" he yelled. "LEAVE THEM OUT OF THIS!"

Janus smiled. "Oh, they can't be left out – no one can – but I think this incentive will do better…"

"Aw, you stupid idiot! What have you done now?" shouted through their minds. Vash spun about. He could tell the direction the voice had come from – it was east of them – Wolfwood had gone south.

"Here," Janus sneered, "let me give you a visual…"

Vash and Harrisburg's minds filled with the image of a disabled Sand Steamer. It looked as if it had been steered into a mountain. A gaping hole melted in the side of the ship had a group of people standing before it with their hands over or on their heads. A man with an Angel Arm was keeping them targeted. The image then zoomed in on a single person.

"Oh god… Kite!"

"Stupid broom-head!" the kid grumbled.

Janus laughed. "And I do believe you have friends here as well," he said as he snapped his fingers and the image shifted to the high stone above the city of New Oregon. Yet another Angle Armed man could be seen walking the mesa. He was taking random shots at the outskirts of town, herding people back into the city as they attempted to escape.

"I have my Plants located near or around everyone you've affected in the last year and a half, Vash the Stampede." Janus looked over at the cannon being aimed at him by Harrisburg. "So, if you want to kill me, go ahead and shoot – but all those others will die as well." He returned his gaze on Vash and smirked. "By the way, lets not forget the most important one to you – she's involved as well…"

Vash held his breath as the image of Meryl riding a thomas with Knives seared his mind. Millie could be seen close behind.

Knives looked up. Vash could have sworn he knew he was being watched.

Knives nodded and worded something with his mouth.

Vash whirled about and stepped up to Janus.

Janus was taken by surprise. He attempted to take a step back, but Vash kept his relative distance – too close to use the Angel Arm.

"Part of you is me," Vash said with a quiet angry stare in his eye. He reverted his mini-cannon back into his gun and slapped it into its holster. He removed his glove on his right hand and slapped it across Janus' face.

"Disarm!" he said to his clone.

The Angel Arm reverted to the shotgun. Janus attempted to restore it, but Vash slugged him, sending him flying one way, the gun another.

"Go ahead, kill me!" Janus yelled as he wiped a trickle of blood from his lip.

Vash stood over the false Stampede. "Who said anything about killing you? I don't like playing with grenades – pulling pins are for fools."

"What?" Janus asked with a confused expression.

Harrisburg grinned. "Yea, I dig," he said as he nodded to Vash. "He might be trash, but no need to set off those others." He reverted his own arm back to the Cross Punisher. He reached into a kit pouch on his belt and removed a doorknob device.

"Don't for a minute think that you've won, gentlemen," Janus said from his sprawled position as Harrisburg approached him with the mind shield. He touched the side of his nose with his left hand and instantly vanished in a teleport move.

"NO!" shouted Harrisburg. He looked at Vash. The gunman was staring to the south. "Well!? What now, oh mighty Vash the Stampede?" he bellowed.

Vash closed his eyes. "Track him."

Harrisburg blinked. "Huh?"

"Track him – quickly!" Vash looked over at Harrisburg. "You showed you could track Plants before, remember?"

It took the Marine a moment to realize what the Humanoid Typhoon had said. He quickly gathered his own doorknob device and lowered its power. Vash in the meantime had picked up the stray shotgun. He looked at the Sergeant and placed the gun on his shoulder as he started to walk towards where the scout ship was still burning.

"Never let a sacrifice go to waste!" he said to him before continuing on.

"Wolfwood," the Sergeant said to himself. He sighed and scanned for a feeling to where Janus had fled.

----------------------------------------

Sara sat back in her chair. She shook slightly as a wave of pain swept through her.

"Hey… HEY!" Kinza yelled at her. "You don't look so well."

She nodded as sweat rolled down her forehead. The image she had seen on her first trip to the planet was splattered across her mind as if thrown there by a careless child. The church spire – the creature skewered by it – the ebbing life… the pain… the incredible pain…

"It's happening… History is playing out as I saw it… as I saw it before…" she murmured.

"Oh terrific," Kinza groused. "Not another 'History's Daggers' situation…" He rotated his targeting unit on another stray asteroid for Brandywine.

"What?" Sara asked as she tilted her fevered head towards him.

Kinza shook his head as he kept on his targeting vigil. "My last mission – I was working a great deal with a woman who could 'see the future', since she could contact herself in the past. She was always making comments on her 'History's Daggers' that would haunt her." He glanced over at the officer. "Are you having one of those?"

Sara nodded. "Wolfwood… I just saw him – spiked on a spire of a building…" She shuddered. "Uh… it was horrible! I saw it before when I tried to see the future for the first time…"

Kinza continued his work. "Is he okay? Is he going to survive?"

Sara lowered her head. "I'm not sure – I don't think so."

Kinza grunted as he continued his scans. "We're about fifteen minutes from finishing here - then we can go assist," he told her.

She drew a deep breath. "No, we must return to the Steamer as soon as we are done here."

"Ea?" Kinza questioned. "Not help out?"

Sara wiped her brow and glared out the window of the pilot's house. "We will be. We will be."

Kinza scratched the fur on his arm… the itch he had was back – this wasn't good.

oOo

**Next Episode**

_**Butterflies - they flutter and dance in a waltz that enchants the soul**_

_**I am a hunter of the elusive mayfly of peace**_

_**But I am forever racked by my past and tormented by my future**_

_**I am Vash the Stampede - the Humanoid Typhoon some say**_

_**I have been told that my name was really shortened from 'Vast Ash' for all the destruction that seems to follow me**_

_**After witnessing the destruction of the Second Moon by my fellow Plants, I no longer feel that the name is appropriate for just me.**_

_**I'd rather be a butterfly.**_

_**Next Episode of TRIGUN: MOON CHILD - Chapter Sixteen - Vast Ash - Part 3**_

_**Well - maybe not a butterfly...**_

"History's Dagger" from _The Lugia Chronicles _(Story #1272028&chapter10 on FFN) ©2000 DMS/The Lugia Project – Used with Permission

Elb Kinza, UNS Forrestal, Roy Strom, GENUINE DOORKNOB, Snake Lasers, S.A.M. System ©2003 DMS – Used with permission  
All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow  
Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0311.25


	19. Vast Ash ¤ Part 3

**  
****Chapter Sixteen**

TRIGUN:**  
****MOON CHILD****  
****Vast Ash**

**-Part 3-**

**By R. A. Stott**

"I have never been one to sit on my laurels - Especially when the odds are so much in favor of the bad guy."

Harrisburg pondered the gunman who was sitting on a stone next to the burning hulk of his scout ship. He was examining his silver gun and the three side plates that normally covered the isotope.

"Looks like Janus went towards a town called China Grove," Harrisburg said as he checked his coordinates on a scanner. "It looks as if he's heading for a crash site of multiple ships."

Vash looked up at him then over in the direction he had mentioned. "The wrecks of Beta-47-829 and Cygnus-2-87," he said as he recollected the ships from memory. "That's a good place to hide. Those were large ships that crashed in a relative small area – they're pretty much intact… or I should say piled together." He holstered his gun and pocketed the three plate pieces as he stood up.

"So what do we do now?" the Marine asked as he pulled a handle on the hull of the ship, releasing a series of fire suppressors inside the warped and twisted cabin.

Vash pondered the moment as Harrisburg stepped behind the remains of his ship to check on the aft section which had fallen off.

"I'm not sure," Vash whispered to himself, but loud enough for the Sergeant to hear. "Any action we do towards D'two or his… people… will only cause more pain on those I know. Damn! What did I ever do to that guy?"

Harrisburg didn't answer. He pulled on another handle with a cloth from his uniform. A scorched hatch popped open and deposited a small bundle of wheels and bars. He lifted it up and started to unfold the sections much to Vash's interest. The unit had three wheels – two up front and one in the rear. A motor rested in front of this aft wheel, and a seat was flipped to an upright position above it. Once Harrisburg had completed the transformation of pipes and tubes, what Vash found he had built was a motorized trike, except that the two wheels on the one end was the steering, and the single rear was the drive. A pair of foot mounts stretching to the rear told him that the rider laid down on this contraption when in use.

"What is that thing?" Vash quipped.

Harrisburg stepped over the device and locked his belt into the back of the seat. "These scout cycles are designed for quick getaways and pursuit. But they're not designed for multiple riders, though there's a chapter on how to do it in the Marine's manual."

Vash shook his head. "Not necessary," he said. "You follow Janus to China Grove. Find his master's headquarters."

Harrisburg looked up from his bellied position. "What are you going to do?"

Vash drew in the early morning air. "Save Wolfwood – I owe him that."

"And just how do you intend on getting there?" He looked at the gunfighter and saw him looking down at the ground with his arms crossed across his chest.

"Oh," he said as he watched Vash become a flittering ball of light. He lifted off the ground and shot off to the south.

"Damn, how did he do that?" Harrisburg mumbled to himself. "I thought he wasn't a full Plant…" But it was too late now – the gunman had vanished. He hefted the Cross Punisher over his shoulder and revved his cycle. He tore across the desert floor following the signature he could feel of the Plant that had killed his Dia.

---------------------------------------

Now the shower of rocks on the moon base really started. Sara watched as Brandywine struggled to get as many as she could, but the large ones were easy to stop – it was the smaller ones that were getting through, and they were pummeling the surface. One shield had already fallen to the punishment, and the second was weakening fast.

A second blast of a large asteroid had created another shockwave that punched a hole through the remaining material coming from the former location of the Second Moon. But the redirected material that was coming in from the deflection off the planet was still heading their way. It could not be rerouted like the other cloud of flotsam with another shock-explosion as the planet would then take the brunt of any such detonation. As a result, only manually removing it was possible.

Brandywine was getting exhausted. She had wanted to build up power so she could clear a wider swath, but each time she tried, a new large chunk of moon would head for them, and she'd need to take decisive action.

"I had to open my mouth!" she would grumble as she shot at another stray rock. She peeked through the force field during a brief breather with her helmet. She sighed. At least she was being helped now.

Forrestal had joined in on the battle, using her Medusa-like Snake Lasers to take out wide spreads of tumbling rock. Twenty-four individual lasers swung about in the near-nil gravity managing somehow not to hit one another as they broke the stones and boulders up. She had finally placed herself above the SEEDS ship and was shielded them with her own bulk and deflectors.

Kinza was busy looking over his readouts. Sara watched with a bit of awe and a bit of amusement as she could see him concentrate on multiple tasks. His eyes would dart across the screens at what they were telling him as he continued to direct fire on larger objects. His ears would twist and turn at the slightest sound within the cabin as he would listen for alarms, alerts and communications over the many channels that were being squawked about.

She sat back as his right ear suddenly snapped towards her. He gave a quick glance at something over her head and continued with his work.

"It's about time," he said as he punched a com switch.

"Fifth Asteroid Engineers have arrived," a voice swaggered across the speakers. Kinza snorted.

"Lance, don't take this the wrong way," the Tomassamassa said, "but god I'm glad you got here!"

A series of small ships very much like the one that was used to guide the large asteroids earlier arrived around the fleet. They seemed to have what looked like long rods hanging below them. At the end of each rod was a dish antenna.

"Hey, you guys were just lucky that we were heading for Deneb 2 when this went down," the crusty voice harped. "So what can we do for you, furball?"

Sara looked at him with a bemused expression as Kinza shook his head. "What's the largest transduction system you have on you?" he asked the com.

There was a little static in the system. "Ummm, a quarter moon," Lance replied. "Our job out on Deneb 2 wasn't very large…"

Kinza pondered this information. "Okay… try a set up like this, he said as he touched a screen with the claw on his right index finger. As he did, a small representation of the ships appeared. "Think you can do that?"

"Give us a little protection while we set up, and I'll move mountains," Lance laughed. "Where do you want us to put the stuff?"

Kinza looked at his readouts. "This is an engineering nightmare," he grumbled. "Best place to put it would be where it came from in the first place I would think."

"There's an ionized hot spot there – transduction system won't like that," Lance commented. "How about 2 days down the natural orbit line?"

Kinza grabbed his beard. "There's no oceans to worry about on the planet, so for the time being, I'd say go for it. We'll just have to adjust for any oddities to the orbits later."

Sara watched as the ships moved about with an escort of two Scat Backs each. The small attack crafts covered the service ships with their screens and would shoot stray larger rocks.

"Just what are they going to do?" Sara asked. "What is transduction?"

Kinza made a half-laugh. "First, let's just say that the humans of Earth are without a doubt the best engineers of asteroids and other rogue land masses. You see, a few years after the last of the sleeper ships left, there was an accident involving their moon – it left a serious amount of debris in Earth orbit. They developed a method of cleaning the airspace over the planet using what they called a transduction set. You see those poles hanging out from under those ships? Those are transduction rods. They use them to form a field between the ships that can be used to send material instantly to wherever they want to send it."

Sara looked at Kinza with a slight shocked expression on her face. "A transmat?"

Kinza squirreled up his face. "Yes and no… Transduction units don't use as much energy as a transmat system. They don't need to worry about living things with them."

Sara sat back and stared at him. "You don't have to worry about what?"

Kinza sighed. "Transduction units only move inert materials – and if it wasn't inert before going through one, it is once it comes out." He looked over at the officer. "You don't ever want to go through a transduction field."

"Receiving field ready," another voice came over the com.

"Okay Ralph," the voice of Lance said. "We're just about ready too. 30 seconds to first batch…"

Sara saw little between the ships though she could see the small dish antennas on the end of the long poles adjust and twist as the ships would bob about.

"We have a field," Lance reported. Sara still saw nothing.

A flash in the lower corner of her vision made her look down. A small cluster of stones had just hit a wall of energy and vanished.

"Watch this big one here," Kinza noted, tapping her on the shoulder and pointing at a large rock that was tumbling towards them. It kept getting larger and larger. She saw the small ship nearest to them move away from them.

"Here comes the first large one, boys," Lance said as the small asteroid struck the field. Sara watched as it stripped itself before her eyes. The stone literally showed its core to her as it was transducted away.

"That was creepy," she noted.

Kinza nodded. "It always looked like one of those scans doctors make of bodies when they want to look inside someone," he grimaced. "That's the problem with transductions… You should see what just came out on the other end!"

"Rubble?" she guessed.

"Federation standard on transduced material – a ten to one ratio," he quoted from memory. "A ten foot block must be segmented to one foot units so that any loose material is guarantee to burn up in even the thinnest atmosphere." He looked over his readings. "Well, now that they're here, we can continue back to the planet - Brandywine, you my stand down now."

"About time!" she sniped back. "My arm is numb!"

"You're gonna have a bad case of Artist's Elbow in the morning," Kinza grinned. "Closing hatch…"

There was a whirring sound, but little else from the aft section.

"Umm… closing hatch… umm… Closing the damn hatch…"

Kinza sat back in his seat and blew air. "Blast it all…"

"What?" Sara asked.

"Sorry Kinza," Brandywine called over the com unit. "It looks like I welded the door open."

Kinza pointed at the com. "THAT'S what we call unexpected. We'll have to stop over at Forrestal and either get repairs or a new shuttle.

Sara pounded her armrest. "Another delay… We've got to get back there!"

Kinza swung the ship about and headed for the large starship below them. "We'll get there – don't worry. We'll get there."

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Her chief engineer lay splayed across his controls. She herself held her wounded arm limply to her side. The shock that the unit she had been sent to fine tune had leaped from its containment vessel and had attacked her crew still overwhelmed her. She looked up at the Plant above them. She wondered why it was still putting out power even though the core had obviously left the chamber.

"Residual flow from The Source," the Plantoid said to her. He was tall and lanky, and held the shotgun against his bare shoulder. He had been completely naked when he escaped from the vessel before the stunned crew. He had at least thrown on some pants but after he had either wounded or killed all of the repair and maintenance personnel that were there. The shotgun had been hidden behind a panel on the wall she had never noticed before.

"I had it hidden all the time you were here," he added. He then tapped the top of the gun to his head. "And I can read your minds – cloud them too if need be."

Elizabeth gasped. "Why? Why are you doing this to us? We nurtured you – helped you – kept you alive…"

The Plant howled. "What a load of thomas dung! Since when was that your job? Is it because of being a graduate of this holy power, Manus Bresken Kantacle Technical Industrial Union? Don't make me laugh!"

"W-what do you want with us?" she asked as he demonstrated his Angel Arm conversion then retracted it back into its shotgun mode again. He had done it earlier and fired it into the sky for some reason – the resulting lights she could see along the horizon made her feel the same way she had when her home in July had been obliterated.

"Personally, I would just as well wipe you all off the face of Gunsmoke," the Plant stated. "But YOU…" He pointed the barrel of the shotgun at her head. "You're the only one I need to let live – the rest I could sweep clean if I need to."

"Why? Why!?" she cried.

"Because of me," a familiar voice said. Elizabeth looked about and saw nothing. She saw that the Plantoid was doing the same.

"Where are you, traitor?" he snarled as he now held the gun in both hands.

"Not where you're looking," Vash said. "Ah! Almost! Not there either!"

The Plantoid spun about and pointed the gun. He still didn't get a feel for where his target was. Vash just wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"Damn you! Where are you!? I can't even feel your mind!"

He felt a tap on his shoulder and spun around. He caught a glimpse of something fluttering around.

"You're… you're in advanced mode!" the Plantoid cursed. "You shouldn't be able…"

The Plantoid snapped his head back and shivered. Elizabeth thought she could see a pair of fingers being pressed against his neck.

"You need to sleep friend," Vash said. "You're too cranky."

He dropped his gun then fell to the ground twitching. Elizabeth held her breath as a shimmering figure rose above the collapsed Plant.

"Let me see that arm," the fluttering light told her. She attempted to move back, but found her legs to be frozen as the glow dropped beside her.

"Don't be afraid Elizabeth," he told her as a face appeared in the light.

That same simple faced gunslinger that she tried to kill not so long ago.

"Vash? Vash, is that you?" she barely got out.

His look changed from goofy to sad. "I'm sorry – I'm sorry for this… I'm sorry for July… I'm sorry for all they are putting you through. My friends… my loved ones… they have already taken one of you… I will not let them take any more!"

A hand appeared out of the light and waved over the wound on her right arm. The shot-pellets dropped from the wound and the injury sealed itself without a trace. Elizabeth looked down on the hand then back at Vash's face.

"How did you do that?" she asked.

He shook his head as he looked at his hand. "I don't know… It was like someone told me that I could do that. Funny, isn't it?"

She glared at him. "If you can do that for me, hurry up and help the others!"

Vash sat back and blinked. He then smiled at her.

"Always the sensible one!" he said and went to the next man he could save.

It took almost an hour to finish with the last person available. But as soon as he could, and without any farewell, he shot off south again.

"What was that, ma'am?" one of her assistants asked as she watched the light dim in the morning skies.

"An angel?" she guessed. "How can this planet's savior be the most wanted man ever?"

Vash gasped. "I spent too much energy on them back there… I just hope I have enough for Wolfwood!"

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Meryl felt uneasy being held to the thomas by Knives. She couldn't figure if it was him, or the sounds the dark tunnels were echoing. She could hear the shrieks of worms far off in the distance as they moved through the solid rock. She also could hear the sound of other creatures that called the tunnels their home, many of whom few had ever seen, and few she ever wanted to see.

A small lantern was the only light guiding them. It dimly lit the smooth curved walls as the thomas trotted along. It had been iles since she had seen anything that told her that there was an outside world. Her nerves told her to scream – the firm grip of the man holding her to the Ollie saddle told her that she was… safe?

That was it. The sudden realization made her clutch the thomas' feathery coat a bit tighter. The man holding her was the actual man she had been sent out to keep tabs on – the man responsible for many of the atrocities that had been blamed on Vash – he was holding her, keeping her from falling off the saddle. Was it safe to do so? He seemed to have changed his ways, yes… but the way he reacted to those boys who tripped her thomas earlier – the shaking of the walls… would he have killed them? A streak of fear ran up her spine. She didn't even know if he had killed them or not.

"Millie? Are you back there?" Meryl called into the dark passage behind them.

"Still here m'am!" her bright voice resounded. Meryl sighed with relief that she wasn't alone with Knives.

"Are you alright, Miss Stryfe?" Knives asked in a near monotone. She felt the hair on the back of her neck raise.

"Knives," she said as she pulled away from him slightly and leaned against the thomas' shoulders, "I have to know… did you… did you… k – k – ki… Those boys back there… did you kill…"

"I taught them a lesson," he stated. "Anything else was or would have been as a result of their own foolishness."

She swallowed. That wasn't exactly the answer she was expecting. She pondered another question, but felt better of it. She bit her lip and clutched the pelt even tighter. The thomas grunted.

Something ahead made a steam-release type sound. As they rounded a bend, the caboose of the Tunnel Steamer came into view. Meryl felt the world fall off her mind – the safety of all her friends was there waiting for her.

The Steamer was slowly moving as a pair of worms were digging the tunnel in front of it. The air breaks sneezed and the machine ground to a stop.

"You're safe!" a relieved Miami called from the doorway to the cabin section of the Steamer. Meryl saw that Dallas was standing over Miami with a lantern. She looked away feeling happy to see him up again, but not forgetting that she was the one who had put him near death.

"You're detouring," Knives stated. "Why?"

"There was a possibility that some of those with the guns might know of the tunnels," Dallas explained. "So we made our own for the last four or so iles."

After stowing away the thomases and quickly getting aboard, the worms resumed their course.

"Those things still give me the creeps," Millie whimpered as they moved on.

An hour slowly passed. Meryl poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down. She took a sip and felt the warm liquid flow through her. She relaxed, letting her frazzled nerves settle down. But when she put the cup down on the table in front of herself, she noticed something odd.

"Hey, did any of you notice that we're going down?" she asked as she saw the coffee leaning to one side of the cup.

Dallas nodded. "We've been doing that for the last few hours now," he said as he sat across from her. "We were allowing them to be random, so as not to be a target."

Meryl looked towards the front cabin. "Who's piloting this thing anyway?"

"Lexington is from the rear," Dallas noted as he poured himself a coffee. "I should check on the direction though," he added as he turned towards the communications station. He flicked a switch and brought up a map layout of their course. He sat back and examined it while sipping his cup.

"We shouldn't get much lower – the worms don't like going more than a hundred feet below the surface at any given time." He leaned forwards again and tapped on the screen at a strange anomaly that was appearing in their path. "What is that?" he pondered.

Meryl looked closer as well. There was a yellow area at the top of the screen that was starting to dominate the path they were taking. "Is that the surface?" she asked.

"No, yellow implies that it's still underground," Dallas said. "It's more like a massive cavern."

Meryl walked around the table and leaned against it as she joined Dallas pondering the yellow area. "Do you know where we are in relation with the surface? I mean, can you overlay a map of where we are on this one?"

Dallas put his cup down and began punching buttons on the console. He brought up a surface map and dropped it over their path.

"CRASH SITE – ALPHA SHIP" glared back at them.

Dallas looked back towards the rear of the cabin. "Knives! Boston! Come here!" he yelled.

---------------------------------------

December lay below him as Vash caught his bearings. It wasn't the largest city he had ever seen, nor was it the first time he had seen it. It was the first time from such an altitude. He saw that the large section of SEEDS ship that was the backbone of the city was smoking slightly from its top where a hole had been drilled through it. He fluttered about the smoldering orifice and determined that it had been made from a shot from the northwest. He zipped away.

Harrisburg's route took his powered reverse trike through a field of steaming hot brine geysers. It leapt and bounded through the salty morass sending scalding hot sand and water back behind him in a rooster tail. He could feel the heat building up between his legs as he continued to follow the trail that Janus had made in his escape. It didn't bother him – nothing was going to stop him. Janus killed his Dia. Janus was going to die.

The trouble was, seeing that Janus was mostly a clone of Vash, with his Doorknob turned down, he was feeling both his prey and the real Vash. It was a bit disturbing.

Ahead of him he could see the outline of a town at the base of a large pile of ship wreckage. Vash had said that it was the remains of two ships that had crashed together. It was quite a heap. From the range he was at, he could not tell where one ship ended and another started.

Suddenly, Janus vanished from his senses. He skidded his trike to a stop and searched with his mind. He turned the Doorknob off for a moment.

"Hello there," echoed through his head. It wasn't Janus – it was that first voice he had felt the day before.

"The high and mighty D'two," he grumbled. "So, Janus was bringing me to you as well, was he?"

"Yes, I'll either need to punish him or thank him for that later," D'two said with a chuckle. "He is such a mischievous sort, isn't he?"

Harrisburg settled back down on his trike and revved the motor. He pulled his bearings and returned the Doorknob to its full power setting.

"It is best to keep that up at its full power setting," a voice told him. Harrisburg looked about and saw a man standing at the top of a hill to his right.

"That is a good idea at any time, friend," the marine stated. "You understand what this is?"

"Of course I do," he said with his mind. Harrisburg looked down at his Doorknob – he should not be hearing this man this way with it at full power.

"I can work around the blockage," the man said. "It's kind of a human side-band."

The Marine sat up in surprise and quickly twisted the trike to aim its machine guns at the stranger. "You're not a Plant?" he barked.

The man held his hands up. "Please, settle… I mean you no harm… and yes, you are correct. I am not a Plant, but my master has endowed me and my brother with this curse." There was a flash of light and the man was gone.

"My brother was given the arm of the gunslinger Vash the Stampede. I was given the legs of Plant 1240 – Delta 2406 of Seattle," the man said as he reappeared next to Harrisburg. "My name is Goethe. I am the last of the original Gung Ho Guns."

The Sergeant pulled a knife and quickly brought it up to the neck of Goethe. He smirked and vanished again.

"The transference gave me unusual speed in my legs," he told Harrisburg as he appeared behind him. "Unlike the other genetic experiments, where speed and accuracy was augmented by numbing the senses of the person being attacked, I use flat out speed."

"For a big man, you certainly are fast," Harrisburg snorted.

"Speed is not my only weapon," Goethe noted and vanished again. He reappeared a few yarz ahead of Harrisburg and looked down. When he looked up again, his eyes were glowing.

The Doorknob began to heat up, and Harrisburg felt a hot stinging pain between his eyes. The searing heat being brought on him made him grab the handlebars of the trike and yell in pain. It then stopped. He looked up at Goethe and spat at the ground.

"As you can see," Goethe stated, I have the capability of circumventing the Doorknob you wear for protection."

"I hope you can do better than that!" the Marine cursed as he pulled the trigger on his machine guns. Goethe had vanished before the first bullet had left the chamber, and he only rose a splattering of dust where he once stood.

"You don't seem to understand," Goethe said from beside him again. "I tell you this because I am only the disciple."

Harrisburg looked up at him. "Meaning…"

"Meaning, that I'm only his disciple," he repeated. "He is much more powerful than I."

Harrisburg looked at the town ahead of him then back at Goethe.

"Why are you telling me this?" he asked. "Shouldn't you be the enemy?"

"When we meet again, we shall be… but as for now…" Goethe turned and looked at China Grove. "Consider this my revenge on my master for returning my brother to life, such as it is. Even now I can feel Legato screaming within the body of that creature in pain. There is more of him in there than D'two realizes."

He turned and started to walk away from the town. "Be careful of those in China Grove – they all are under his control."

Harrisburg snapped a look back at the town. "Damn… Are they Plants?"

"No, humans," he answered. "Beware the sheriff and his men." With that, he vanished.

"Beautiful," the Marine grumbled and slowly moved the trike along towards town.

---------------------------------------

The bulb of the massive Plant reflected the red/brown outer hull of the Tunnel Steamer in a distorted curved shape.

"How the heck did we get here?" Meryl asked.

"I directed you here," the voice of the chairperson said through their minds. My name is Myuki – welcome to Alpha Base."

"Madame Chairman," a loud – youngish voice yelled from across the room as the Steamer Travelers disembarked. "Has the defendant arrived?"

Knives looked up at the tall wide podium and at the small face looking over it at him – then the six other faces that followed the first.

"He has, chief justice," Myuki replied from her containment unit. "My son has arrived."

The words "my son" at first had not caught Knives attention. He simply looked at the curved orange red glass-like ceiling and at the multiple minor Plant Vessels scattered about. But when it clicked in his mind just what the large Plant before him said, he stood in awe of her.

"Mother?" he asked himself.

"Yes yes, that's her," Boston said to him as he brushed past the gawking man. The attorney was trying to get all his papers correct. He had not expected to arrive when they did at Alpha Base, so his work had been spread all over a table in his cabin. He stalked over to the desk that Photon was still sitting at. She had been taken by surprise by the fact that a large metal machine had just burst through the wall, and had come dangerously close to running her over. Of course, there was also the two sand worms curled up beside her as well that were racking her nerves.

"Madam Chairman, chief justice, my client, Mr. Millions Knives is ready for the trial," he announced as he held the lapels of his jacket. "Furthermore…" he started, until he noticed Knives walking towards the large Plant vessel that dominated the center of the chamber.

"Mother…" he whispered. "Why?"

The Plant phased and opened its yellow haze to let those in the room see the woman within the chamber. She looked down on Knives.

"Why?" she asked in thought.

"Why?" Knives asked again. "Why did you abandon us? Vash and myself… why?"

There was silence in the room.

"Now is not the time to ask that, Mr. Knives," the chief justice said from her perch. "It may be part of your trial."

"I WANT AN ANSWER!" he bellowed, his face twisted in anger at the justice. "I WANT AN ANSWER NOW!"

His face spun about, a red hand mark glaring across it. He grabbed his stinging cheek and looked up. First he saw Meryl. She was clutching her face, a look of shock rolling across it. He saw legs and a skirt beside him and followed them up to the angry face of Millie glaring down on him.

"Show your mother some respect, Mr. Knives!" she spat. "Maybe she had no choice in the matter!"

"You… you STRUCK me! You actually struck me!" he shuttered while holding his face.

"If she hadn't, I would have!" Photon barked at him as she joined the Insurance Girl. "If you only knew how she suffered over you two!"

"Photon!" Myuki called out.

The lady Plant covered her mouth and looked up at the vessel. "I'm sorry, m'am," Photon squeaked. "I just couldn't just sit here and let him degrade you like that."

"She's MY mother!" Knives snapped back at the girl. "I'll speak to her as I please!"

He was too angered to notice how fast the girl was, as she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and hoisted him off the ground.

"She's MY MOTHER as well!" she screamed. "And if you think I'LL let you talk down to OUR mother, you've got another thing coming!"

"Photon, please put the defendant down," the chief justice ordered from her podium. "I do not wish to call in the court officers."

"Put me down," Knives grumbled. Photon snorted and obliged him by tossing him into her chair. He wiped his chin and glared up at her. "How can you be my sister?" he added with a snarl.

"Half sister," she corrected. "After the landing, mother spent the first fifty years outside of her vessel while repairs were made. She had spent most of her energy attempting to save the soul of your guardian prior to the crash. When the remains of her section of the ship soft landed in the molten glass field that Plant 1 had created, mother's vessel was damaged. It was only by extending her power field out that made this cavern that she kept the other Plants from melting." She gestured to two smaller Plants that were behind the larger first unit. Knives seemed unimpressed.

"So, your father is one of those two?" he guessed.

"No," Myuki said through the glass. "Her father was a Plant Engineer who survived the crash in his Coldsleep tube. Forty-five units managed to make it through with us. When I found myself outside of my vessel, and I saw who was inside his sleeper-tube, I revived him and asked for his assistance. I had not expected to fall in love with him. Photon was born in 0025 AC."

Knives still seemed unimpressed. "So where is this great love of yours that saved you from an untimely end from energy depletion?" he coldly asked. He was answered by a slap across his face again.

"He died of old age, you jerk!" Photon scolded him. "He was a pure after all!"

"PURE!?" Knives roared as he held his face where she had hit him. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN PURE!?"

"Do not act the fool, son," Boston said as he stepped beside his client. "You were informed on the origins of the Plantoids. A 'pure' is either a non-gene spliced human, or an Angel 1."

"And there are few of those around," Knives grunted sarcastically.

"More than you would know," a man in the corner said. His glasses reflected the light of the Plant. He had been silently sitting in the dark watching the commotion happening before him.

"Mr. North?" Meryl asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Observing, my dear. That's my job." He looked up at the judges. "Chief justice, this was unexpected. Should we not recall the witnesses?"

The judge nodded. "We shall allow a few extra hours for the proceedings to start, for those who need to prepare to do so, and to recall those who need to be here. Does the observation chair concur?"

North bowed slightly. "We do your honor. I have dispatched my best assistant to assist those who need help getting back."

---------------------------------------

Brandywine stood in awe at the cavernous landing deck that the shuttle had settled in. She was given an even larger shock when she stepped around their ship to see that the massive doorway they had passed through was still open to space. It took her a moment to see the force field shimmer that was holding the air in the bay.

"Ready?" she heard. She turned towards Kinza, who was directing his two passengers to another shuttle off to the far side of the deck. She looked back at the ship they had just left and saw the scorched marks her gun had left behind, and the melted doorframe that had caused them to have to land on Forrestal.

"Dang," she said to herself. She looked at the shotgun in her hands and shook her head. She started for the new shuttle and noticed a large tank at the back of the bay. A pair of eyes looked back at her through the glass wall. They seemed large and powerful, yet sad and lonely. Something inside her told her that this was a creature to respect.

"Thank you," she heard in her mind, as if she had just spoken to a fellow Plantoid. The energy in the transmission was enormous. Brandywine stepped back then took two steps forward.

"Mr. Kinza… what… who is that?" she asked her pilot. He looked over at the tank and waved to it.

"A friend of ours from the last mission (**¤** - see credits below) - we were transporting him back to his home when we were called here," he said. "He is telepathic – is he talking to you?"

"I sense your pain child," the creature said. "You are not guilty."

Brandywine gasped. It was a mind stronger than hers – stronger than any Plantoids she had ever felt.

"Is… is it a god?" she asked in a slight awe as she looked deeply into the misty water. The eyes blinked at her with a questioning expression. She could see that they were surrounded by dark blue streaks that gave them a slightly angry look. But they looked gently at her.

"Some people back where he comes from say he's a god," Kinza told her, "but I've never seen a god eat us out of fish like he does!"

"Replicated fish – ugh…" he rumbled through their minds. Kinza laughed.

"Kinza! Brandy! Hurry!" Sara called from the new shuttle. She then saw what was keeping them. She sighed. Now wasn't the time to waste even with something so – different.

Kinza nodded and tapped on the tank's side. "Be back shortly, LG. You take it easy in there, hear?"

"It's not like I'm going anywhere," the giant creature said. He raised his head up, sending a small cascade of water back into the tank and splashing some of the nearby people on the landing deck.

"Oh my…" was all Brandywine could say as Kinza dragged her along. The creature was huge. The head was on a long neck, and what she thought was his skin was an off gray-white. Out of the water, his eyes became sharp as knives and piercing, though she still felt some sorrow in them.

It was then that he ruffled himself and shook some of the water off his head that she realized just what he was.

"A bird! He's a huge bird!" she gasped as Kinza opened the hatch of the ship.

But as he exposed his feathers, she also saw scars. Many - many scars - As many as she had seen on Vash. She looked at Kinza, who looked at her with an expression that told her he knew what she had seen.

"He's been through the ringer lately," the Tomassamassa told her with a sigh as they entered the shuttle. "We're healing him up before taking him home. He almost died. His mate did. Damn I hate this job sometimes…"

She watched him trudge into the pilot's house and sit at the controls. It was the first time she had heard the strange alien she had only met a few days prior speak in the negative.

Sara watched him work over the controls. He scratched an itch on the back of his hand. He looked at it and then at her.

"Damn it… let's get this over with!"

He tossed the ignition switches and dragged the shuttle from its slumber. He dropped her out of the bay and below the large lower power facility that hung under Forrestal's forward section. He quickly brought her up to speed and slid her into a path that was being made by the transduction miners.

Brandywine sat in the back with a pad and pen and was roughly sketching what she had seen.

"The god of water," she whispered to herself. She then laughed.

"God, could we use some on that rock we call home!"

---------------------------------------

"God, I'm tired of dying…"

The wind rustled his wing's feathers. He dangled helplessly from them, his energy spent and his body flayed by Janus' attack. He felt like an insect that someone had plunged pins through and had stuck to a display.

"Maybe a termite will come and chew me down," he joked to himself.

"I'm not much into the flavor of wood, but will I do?"

Wolfwood grinned, but didn't raise his head. "Somehow, I knew you'd be the one coming to get me," he muttered. "How did you get up here anyway?"

"Well, it's kind of hard to explain…" Vash said. The way he said that, Wolfwood opened his eyes and looked about. He didn't see his friend anywhere, only the lady Plantoid with the shotgun down below. She was looking about wildly holding the gun up and pointing it at random targets.

"Geeze, what's with her?" he wondered.

"I think she's looking for me," Vash replied from nowhere in particular.

"Interesting. And why would she be doing that?"

"Because I'm hiding in your breast pocket!"

Wolfwood looked down his chest at his pocket. There he saw a small glowing ball of light.

"Ah… so now you're a little spot of light," he laughed to himself.

"Keep it down!" Vash yelped. "She knows that I'm here – she just doesn't know where yet!"

"Well, if you're here to save me, don't bother," the preacher said. "Those kids down there are more important than me right now. I wouldn't put it past her to blast at them with that arm gun of hers."

The light moved through the fabric of the jacket and 'looked' below them.

"Yea, I see them," Vash said. He then had to deal with a fluid that passed through his light. It hit the dust below with a sickening splat.

"Wolfwood, not that this is anything you don't know, but you're bleeding badly," Vash noted as he darted for his friend's back to see just how things looked.

"Ha, I guess this proves that I'm no angel," Wolfwood weakly joked. "When was the last time you saw an angel bleed to death?"

"That's no way to talk Nick!" Vash scolded him. "I'm not about to let that happen again. Besides, what would Millie say if she found out that I didn't do something?"

"Bring him here," a voice said to them. Wolfwood wanted to look around, but could not.

"Here?" Vash asked the voice. "How? Where? Who are you?"

There was a slight pause. "My name is Myuki… I am Delta 87. You are my son, Delta 87A."

"You're who?" Vash stammered. He then noticed that Wolfwood was chuckling to himself, which must have been painful as he was adding pained remarks to each laugh.

"Geeze, you're kidding!" he convulsed.

"What?" Vash asked.

"I asked you what your real name was once, remember?" Wolfwood remarked. "I was expecting something unpronounceable, not Delta 87A!"

"Humph!" Vash mockingly snorted. "How would YOU like it if YOUR name was a military commission number?"

Wolfwood chuckled. "87A? Would that mean Knives is 87B?"

"Ummm, yea?" Vash wasn't too sure where this line of questions was going.

"YOU'RE the older brother?"

Vash's little light-bulb landed on Wolfwood's head. "Yea, I guess I am," he pondered.

"HEY UP THERE!" the woman below shouted while pointing the shotgun. "Who are you talking to?"

Wolfwood really wanted to shout back, but didn't have the strength.

"Oh, it's just me," Vash said as the small light grew in size overtop Wolfwood. His face appeared in the glowing haze.

"Ah ha! There you are!" she grinned as she switched the shotgun into the Angel Arm Cannon and aimed at the gathered children. "Don't try anything foolish now, Vash honey! No trying to attack me, or save the preacher, or rescue the kids and stuff, hear?"

Vash held up his hands. "Now - now, let's not get excited here! I don't even know your name yet!"

The woman quivered her lip and glared at Vash. "Betsy!" she barked.

"Betsy?" Vash asked. "What sort of town was Betsy?"

The woman turned red, and her eyes burned. "I wasn't named for a town, you moron! I wasn't one of those chosen few who went off to cities and served the public! I was on an Air Force Base! My idiot tech sergeant gave me that nickname – it used to belong to an old CAR of his!"

"Watch it Vash, she's got issues!" Wolfwood warned.

"I don't know," the image of the Typhoon said. "Get rid of the braids and the horn-rimmed glasses, and she'd be kinda cute!"

"Getting rid of that cannon would be cute too," Wolfwood advised.

"True…"

"You must bring Wolfwood here," Myuki's voice returned. "I am informed that help is on the way. Just keep her distracted."

"Distracted?" the two men asked together.

Just then, a cry pierced the air, and Betsy had to hold her ears. It caused her to revert the cannon to its gun mode so that she could hold her right ear. Vash saw his chance and swooped down and removed the gun from her grasp.

"NYAAAAOOOOOO!!"

"What the hell is that?" Wolfwood said through gritted teeth. All he saw was the children huddling together and the shotgun rising up and away from Betsy's grasp. The yell of whatever it was that was screaming seemed to come from everywhere.

"Give me back that gun!" Betsy shouted. She pointed her fingers at the shimmering object and sent a burst of energy that knocked the rifle away.

"HISSSSSSSSSSSS!!"

As the gun bounced off the ground, and as Betsy was running for it, something dashed up to it and kicked it away.

Wolfwood gawked at the vision before him. "What is that? A Kuroneko?"

"Damn big one, Vash noted. "And that's the first one I've seen with blond hair and standing upright."

Millie and Meryl looked over North's shoulder at the monitor he was watching.

"Is that your assistant?" Meryl asked.

North nodded. "As I told you at the dinner before the Ball in Promontory, I only work with people I can trust."

"The 'S' lady?" Millie exclaimed. North smiled.

Meryl looked closer at the image. "Why does she look like a cat?"

Before he could answer, Betsy had lowered her fingers at the cat-lady and readied to fire, but she was greeted by a slashing of claws across her face.

"Whoa!" North winced as he sat back. "Nasty fury swipe! She's a bit miffed I think."

Betsy grabbed her face as her horn-rimmed glasses fell apart. The cat-lady followed the slashes with a quick double kick to the chin, breast and stomach. Betsy crumpled to the ground.

"That was impressive," Wolfwood said with weak smile.

"Quickly," the lady cat-person yelled up at the two on the steeple. "Get Wolfwood out of here! We'll take care of this!"

"We?" Wolfwood asked. He then saw a horse nearby… a very familiar horse. The cat lady mounted him and watched them.

"That's… that's Diamond Mane!" Wolfwood exclaimed.

"Idiot!" the horse neighed.

Wolfwood slumped. "Crap… that wasn't the last words I wanted to hear…" he said as he lost consciousness.

"NICK!" shouted Vash.

"Surround him, Vash!" his mother called. "You have the means to save him!"

Vash seemed puzzled at first, but somehow he knew she was right. He let his energy presence cover over his friend.

"Like this mother?" he asked.

"That is perfect my son. I will now guide you to where you must take him."

The limp form of Wolfwood lifted up in a glow of energy. The wings slid free of the steeple and at first fell against his back, but then feathered out as a solar wind caught them. The last anyone from below saw of them was the flash of light that spirited them away.

"So, where are we going?" Vash asked. The guidance was taking them into a silky white realm that seemed devoid of much of anything. The color shifted slightly to a pale yellow as they approached what appeared to be a tree.

"Place him in the branches of the tree," Myuki explained to him. "Let The Source tend to his wounds."

Vash materialized in his humanoid form and draped his friend over a large limb of the great tree. He looked about the branches. He felt a warm feeling, as if this place was the center of his universe, his life, his soul.

He reached out and saw the flowers. Most were pink - Almost white like a cherry blossom. As he touched one though, it turned red. Scarlet – the color of blood. He drew back his fingers and looked back at Wolfwood. A flower was touching his hand – it was yellow.

"Rem… if red is determination, does other colors mean anything else?" a younger Vash flash through the older's mind.

She giggled. "I was told once that yellow was the color of a creative mind," she told the boy. Older Vash smiled.

"Creative mind, ea?" Vash said to himself. "Well, you sure did create a brood, now didn't you, grandpa?" he said to the sleeping Wolfwood. "If it wasn't for you and Millie in the past, I would never have had met…"

He stopped. A figure below flashed across his vision. A vision he had thought he would never see again. He quickly lowered himself from the tree.

She was asleep on the stone. He reached down to touch her – to make sure this wasn't only another dream.

His finger touched her arm and she stirred.

"Rem! REM! REM!!"

She barely had time to say "Vash?" when she found herself being swallowed in his arms. He cried as he stroked her hair in his hands and held her close to his chest.

"I'm sorry, Rem… I'm so sorry!" he wept. "If I had known about Knives… If I had known he would have done what he did…"

Rem pulled away slightly and placed her fingers on his mouth. "Hush, Vash. It wasn't his fault – at least, that's the way it's starting to look."

He looked down. He couldn't bring himself to look in her deep brown eyes. "But… but then I broke what you taught me… I killed someone, Rem… I… drew my gun and took a life."

She reached down and took his hands in hers. "Vash, you had no choice. It was forced on you. And I would never hold it against you, ever. You're my boy – you both were my boys. Even if he had done what he did on purpose, it would never change my feeling towards Knives, or you."

She smiled then looked down at Vash's left elbow. She reached down and picked up something that was dangling from it.

"What's this?" she asked as she showed it to Vash.

Vash looked stunned at it. He looked at his hands. Right hand… Left hand… second left hand… mechanical in nature…

"YAAAA!" he shrieked. "I've grown my arm back!" He flexed his left fingers and held them to his face. "But how?"

Something in his shirt flopped down. He reached in and pulled out a plate.

"The sizer plate from where I was gored by that bounty hunter fifteen years ago…" he said as he opened his shirt – the wound was gone – as was many of the others. He pulled the stitch rods that had been on the other side out as well. "What is going on here?"

Rem laughed. "You're in the heart of The Source, silly. It's healing you. I never thought you truly removed yourself fully from The Source. That would be impossible for you."

Vash looked up in the tree. "And I thought I was bringing him here to recover," he joked.

"Him?" Rem asked looking up as well.

"Your… OUR great – great – great – great – umm – great grandfather," he laughed.

"Reverend Nicholas?" Rem excitedly exclaimed. "Why is he in the tree? Was he hurt?"

Vash grimaced. "He was injured while fighting against Janus. My mothe… err - the chairperson had me bring him here."

Rem touched his arm. "Don't be ashamed – she is your natural mother after all."

"That's funny," a malevolent laughing figure said from the haze of yellow just outside the area of the tree. "She's a natural pain to most of us!"

Roanoke stepped into view with a chainsaw for his right hand.

"I've come to do some trimming!" he grinned.

--------------------------------------

The trike slowly approached the small outer wall that made up the boundary of the town. A gateway sign proudly boasted "Welcome to China Grove – A Little Piece of the East out in the West."

Harrisburg looked up at the sign and snorted. The kanji text was all wrong – it was Japanese, yet the town was named China, not Tokyo or Nippon Grove. He shook his head.

"Something wrong stranger?"

The Sergeant hauled the Cross Punisher over his head and held to it tightly as he looked for where the voice had come from. Three men stood just off the porch of the local hotel. All three had stars on their chests.

"Sheriff," Harrisburg said as he held the cross up and released the trike from his belt mount.

The trio stepped to the center of the street. Where Harrisburg expected to see guns in holsters, he found the sheriff with his thumb about to release from its sheath a katana.

"Sorry stranger," the lawman said to the Marine, "but the mayor of this town ain't takin' into lettin' unknowns in. That would of course mean you."

Harrisburg grinned and popped open the missile launcher.

"Too bad," he said.

oOo

**¤ ****See AFTER CHRONICLES – THE RPG – Team Rocket's Haunted Hayride**

**Next Episode**

_**The life of a puppet is a terrible thing**___

_**Always having your strings pulled and twisted**___

_**Held in bondage to someone else's whim**___

_**The puppet dances and prances for the amusement of its master**___

_**Spinning a demented waltz it falls and acts dead**___

_**Was it ever alive, or was it just a dream?**___

_**Next episode of TRIGUN: Moon Child - Chapter Seventeen - China Grove**___

_**If the puppet cuts its strings will it truely live?**_

Elb Kinza, GENUINE DOORKNOB, U.N.S Forrestal, Scat Backs, Diamond Mane/Nightwatch ©2003 DMS – Used with permission  
All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow

Lugia ©2003 The Pokémon Company/Nintendo/Game Freak  
Roanoke the Dream Master, Shadowcat ©2003 S. Nordwall - Used with permission  
Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0311.26


	20. China Grove

**Chapter Seventeen**

TRIGUN:  
**MOON CHILD**

**China Grove**

By R. A. Stott

**EDITOR'S NOTE: Parental Warning – Language and Graphic References**

The shuttle re-entry jostled the two ladies in their seats as Kinza rushed the approach – not that slicing through the upper atmosphere is an easy thing to go through anyway. Brandywine clutched the arm of her seat and gritted her teeth.

"You okay?" Sara asked as they were bounced a few times against the straps that were holding them down.

"Are you kidding?" she grinned. "This is much smoother than the last time I did this!"

"Diverting shields to wing configuration," Kinza yelled back into the cabin from the pilot's seat. He seemed to be enjoying the ride, as Sara could have sworn she saw him laughing to himself as he flew over the controls.

"Where is that Steamer?" he muttered. He watched his scanners for the wayward machine. A dot centered on a large yellow area listed as a class 1-T cavern.

"Alpha Base," he hummed. "Now… an entry…" He keyed up a flight map showing him a way to get to the Steamer, which was now nearly 80 feet below the surface. A long line snaked away from the tunnel vehicle back to an entry spot near the town of Olympia City.

"Great," he now enthused. "A roller coaster ride. Lowering landing pads – stand by on ACTiVES…"

"Actives?" the ladies asked in unison as they continued to hold onto their seats as well as their breaths.

"ACTiVES – Air – Cushion – Thruster - i – VEntS – A kind of pneumatic landing system that allows us to slide along the ground… though air actually has nothing to do with this system…" He glanced back at the ladies, who were giving him the most perplexed of expressions.

"Yea, that's about right," he said and returned to his controls. "Get ready to hold onto your cookies!"

"Cookies?" Brandywine asked.

"What's he about…" was all Sara got out when she saw the ground coming up fast. From her perspective, he was heading for a tiny hole on the side of a crater's wall.

"Going in!" Kinza yelled as they leveled off and dashed into the opening of the tunnel. They bounced lightly onto the surface and slid along into the dark as the ACTiVES fired.

Kinza looked back again to see that both ladies were wide eyed, giving their seats death grips.

"What?" he chided at them. "The Tunnel Steamer is three times the size of this shuttle!" He turned back to his controls shaking his head saying "Worry warts!"

Sliding along the ground was just about as bumpy as the flight down, so the two ladies were content to hang on for dear life as they rapidly approached the location on the astro-scanner. Kinza finally slowed the ship to a tolerable rate when they got within a few iles of the base. He then slowed them to a gentle crawl when the aft of the Steamer was visible in the front windows.

"Broad and Patterson, the Sports Complex and Alpha Base! All out!" he called back to the ladies as they slid to a halt. He bounded for the side hatch and slid it open. He was greeted by a bright smiling face.

"Oh, it's Miss Hug-Me," Kinza noted.

"Hi Mr. Cat-man!" Millie exclaimed. "I didn't know you could fly one of those in the tunnels!"

Sara looked out at her in a slight daze. "Neither did we," she noted. "Come on," she added, grabbing Brandywine's arm and guiding her out and towards the Steamer.

"Order! Order!" the chief justice barked as they headed for the side door to the engine room of the vehicle. "Officer Montgomery, it is good to see you finally," she intoned as she looked down on her from the high bench. "Would you please address the court?"

Sara looked up at the small judge a bit confused. She was about to enter the Steamer and was perplexed at what to do.

"If it pleases the court," North intervened, "I believe that the officer is in the middle of a mission and should be allowed to continue her duty before being questioned by the judges."

The justice looked at the observer. "Really?" she asked flatly. "Is this true Officer Montgomery?"

Sara quickly nodded to her. "Yes ma'am. I am sorry."

"Very well then," the senior judge said. "You may continue."

Sara looked at North and mouthed "Thank you," to him. She then saw Knives seated behind him. He was craning his neck back staring at her. She shifted in her tracks – it felt uncomfortable to her for some reasons. She jumped up into the Steamer.

"So let me get this straight," Brandywine was asking the officer as she was being dragged into the engine room of the Steamer. "You want to take the isotope from my shotgun and try to regenerate the Plantoid that it came from here?"

"Correct," Sara replied.

She stood before the workbench and looked at her gun. "You want to take our one and only viable weapon and possibly make it unusable by removing its core?"

"Umm… yes," Sara replied again. "But it's for a good reason."

"It had better be a damn good reason to do that!" Brandywine said flatly. "What good does regenerating her do for us?"

Sara started to remove the cover from the isotope shield on the gun. "She may be able to somehow control and possibly shut down the other guns that use her isotopes."

Brandywine shook her head. "That may not be all of them."

"Some are better than none," Sara reminded her.

"But is she even alive?" the artist yelped as Sara removed the isotope rod. "After all this time, do you really think she can be revived?"

"I believe that she is still alive." Sara inserted the isotope into the leg clamp for the regen unit.

"How can that be?" Brandywine asked. "What's it been, one hundred twenty some odd years? She has to be dead. Her core link to The Source was atomized when her rods were shattered."

"She is alive," Miami said as she entered the room with Dallas. "If she were truly dead, the guns would not have fired. Besides, if I was told correctly, the pieces of this plant was removed from the past and brought to the future? Then to her, only a few days would have passed."

"There is a risk though," North added as he too entered the room. "If someone attempts to fire their cannon while she is still regenerating, they may cause a massive feedback. She would probably be killed and possibly most of us as well."

Sara looked at the isotope and then back at North. "Are you sure?"

North shrugged. "I am a scientist normally. Simple cause and effect, and a good dose of physical reality – she wouldn't know what hit her."

"Let me help you with that," Millie said as she attempted to assist with the glass bulb for the unit, but found North holding her back and shaking his head.

"Better let her deal with it right now," he said. "Radiation you know."

"You mean like in my salad?" she asked.

"RADIATION Millie! Not RADISHES!" Meryl sometimes just could not figure out what was between her partner's ears. "What should we do?"

"I suggest that all those who don't need to be here be evacuated as fast as possible!" Kinza said as he watched the proceedings. North nodded.

"But…" Meryl started. North placed his hand on her shoulder.

"No – no, you and Millie, raus!" the observer said as he looked at her over the edge of his glasses. "We've got two guys out there fighting all this, and the last thing we need is for them to come back here and find you two blasted to atoms! Kinza, Miami, Dallas, see to all hands!"

"Uh… yes sir!" Dallas said, not expecting such an authoritative statement sent his way.

"Understood," Miami intoned. "Are you coming Miss Brandywine?"

"No way," the artist said. "That's my gun she's playing with!"

"What about you Pastor North?" Millie asked with a bit of worry on her face. He smiled and patted her on the hand.

"I'm an observer, dear," he told her. "It's my job to watch over this. Now you go."

Reluctantly, the Insurance Girls were escorted away to the shuttle, as was the judges, Knives, Boston and a few others. Photon refused at first to be removed, but was convinced to go by her mother. The shuttle quickly headed for the far end of the tunnel that had led them into Alpha Base.

---------------------------------------

"My, you're an interesting looking fellow… you're the Dreamstalker? Roanoke is it?" Vash seemed less than impressed by the odd looking scruffy man before him. He looked back at Rem to see that she was cringing behind him.

"Rem! What is it?" he asked her as Roanoke revved the motor on his chainsaw hand.

She trembled as she looked at the image Roanoke was invoking. "He… he plays on fears," she whimpered.

"Ah, I understand," Vash said as he stood back up to face the man. "You attack people through their dreams and fears."

"You got it, hayseed!" he cracked as he spun the chain-blade faster. "And with this fear of her's, I'll take care of three problems for my master."

Vash scratched his cheek. "Three?" he asked.

"You are a bigger fool than advertised, aren't you?" Roanoke laughed. "Rem, that tree and YOU of course! I can kill you in here and never have to deal with you in person!"

Vash looked about and blinked. "In person?" he asked. "What do you mean 'in person'?"

"Your dream-self here, stupid! If I kill that while you're asleep, you'll die!" With that, he put all his weight into slashing through the Humanoid Typhoon.

"I've got news for you, my twisted friend…"

Roanoke looked up at Vash. His blade had gone through him – he was sure of it!

"I'm not my dream-self. I'm here."

Roanoke's eyes drew small. "Here? As in you're here and not asleep somewhere?"

Vash shook his head. "I came here to get Wolfwood healed up."

Roanoke poked his chainsaw's blade through Vash again. He withdrew it again and jumped back. "You are here!" he cursed. "But that doesn't mean that I can't do something to Rem or the tree!"

Vash pulled his gun and aimed it at Roanoke. "You'll have to get past me first," he said.

Roanoke roared with laughter. "With what? If I can't harm you, you can't harm me!"

Vash shot – the blade of the saw shattered sending chained shrapnel across the ground behind Roanoke.

"How?" Roanoke screamed as his hand returned to normal. "How did you do that?"

"Who's the fool now?" N'ya said as the cat came around the back side of the tree. "He's here in whole form! He can do what he pleases!"

Vash looked at the cat with mild surprise, not expecting a cheering section coming from of all things, a talking Kuroneko! Roanoke only glared at the feline, having had his fill of the creature already.

"There is nothing – NOTHING – more powerful than a nightmare!" Roanoke reared back. He began to shift and change, becoming dark, grizzly and monstrous.

"What the hell is that?" Vash asked as he watched the transformation.

The creature laughed. "Ask Rem – she has a very active mind." He hissed and spat noxious liquids.

Vash looked down at Rem. She was gasping and her eyes were small spots.

"Have you been watching things you shouldn't?" he asked her.

"Monster movie!" she managed to say. "Alien! Mother Alien!"

Vash looked back at the creature. It was getting larger and larger. He slowly lifted his silver revolver and held it directly at the head of the beast.

"Go ahead," howled Roanoke. "Defy your teacher right in front of her!"

Vash glanced down at Rem. "Am I defying you?" he asked.

"NOT AT ALL!" she screamed.

"Thank you," he replied with a sigh of relief. He closed his eyes and transformed his arm. When he opened his eyes again, he was shocked at how large the Angel Arm had become. And he also found that his wings had again sprung forth, the right one literally sprouting out of the cannon which now came fully around his back.

"NO!" Roanoke shouted. "YOU WOULDN'T DARE FIRE THAT IN HERE! NOT HERE IN THE SOURCE! NO!!"

Rem quickly looked at the massive feathered weapon on the arm of her Vash. "N'ya, does he speak the truth?" she asked the cat.

The cat hunkered down. "Err, I reluctantly must say…"

Roanoke's creature leaped for the trio, extending a wet razor encrusted tube-like probe from its mouth.

Vash raised the cannon and aimed just over its head.

He fired.

It was as if every Plant had just contributed their energy to the shot. It was wide, it was large. It was powerful.

And quite on purpose, it missed its mark.

"…YES!!" the Kuroneko shouted as the blast of the cannon hurled it away into the distance. Rem herself clung to Vash's leg as the wind nearly picked her up and threw her away.

Roanoke landed hard, the force of the beam flattening him to the ground. He looked back at where the beam had gone and saw a hole in the yellowish background. He looked back at the Humanoid Typhoon, who now was living up to his nickname.

"You can not harm me," the gunfighter said in a deep angry voice, his eye burning with anger, "so your attack was to get Rem, wasn't it?"

Roanoke scampered onto his legs and took a defensive stance towards Vash. "What about it? You fool, you've doomed her anyway! Look! You've torn open a hole in the fabric of space and time!"

"No - no," Vash said as he waved the new finger on his new left hand at Roanoke. "I _opened_ a hole in the fabric of space and time. Would you like to see how I'll close it?"

Roanoke continued to stray about, looking for ways to avoid Vash. But he was stopped cold when the gunfighter brought the Angel Arm down on his head with a deafening crunch.

"Ouch," he mumbled as Vash lifted him up on the muzzle of his gun and pointed the black slimy body towards the hole.

Vash smirked. "You simply have to put the right amount of mass into it!" He slowly brought the energy up on his cannon, lifting the alien creature away from him and towards the gaping hole in the sky.

Roanoke wasn't about to go easily. He flung his sharp clawed forearms down until they snagged the ground, and started to haul himself back down towards Vash. He then pulled one claw free and slashed at him. He made a sickening thud against his side.

"Ah ha!" Roanoke yelled. "You do become vulnerable when you draw on the same Source as I do!"

Vash smiled. Roanoke held back his fear at the sight of his grin.

"Maybe so, but I'm still all here, so I get the greater power!" Vash reminded him. He then brought the cannon to full bear on the beast.

But Roanoke wasn't ready to let the gunman get the better of him. He swung off the beam of energy using the one claw he still had secured to the ground. He also transformed again, this time becoming a large spidery green and yellowish creature with huge crab-like claws and a piercing scream.

"Oh god! The Ackley!" Rem yelped.

"The what?" Vash asked as he received a belt to his wound with the side of one of the creature's claws. He fell at the base of the tree.

"Star Wars – Episode Two!" was her answer to his question.

Vash shook his head and rolled to one side. "You watched too many movies Rem!" He set up to fire the cannon again.

Roanoke, whose momentum made him miss Vash at the base of the tree, slammed his right claw into its trunk to assist his turning to aim at the gunman. Rem crumpled to the ground in pain.

"REM!" Vash shouted. He had to dodge the attack again by rolling away as Roanoke pounded the ground with the spikes on the ends of the claws. Vash ran over the stone to her side. He saw red running down from a gash that resembled the one on the tree's trunk. He spun about and looked up. Roanoke was looming directly over him, standing on the rock with a fierce toothy grin.

"It's time, Mr. Typhoon. Time to die!"

He raised a spiked claw over their heads and readied to drop it down on them when something slammed onto his back.

The man in black pointed his finger at the beast's head. "Bang," Wolfwood said.

Roanoke's eyes dilated as a flash of energy ran through his brain. He swayed slightly, leaning towards the side where the claw was still in the air.

In the moist atmosphere of D'two's lair, the body of Roanoke convulsed as he raised his head in a blank stare. His master watched passively.

Vash planted the cannon squarely on the chest of the beast and began powering up. He then felt someone touching the weapon. He looked over to see Rem placing her arm into the feathers. She had a determined look on her face, something he had seen once before – the day of the great crash, when she attempted to stop Rowan, and when she had told him to take care of Knives.

She added her own Plant energy to the cannon. The muzzle swelled to a massive size, and the wings on Vash's back were joined by a matching pair on her shoulders.

"Damn!" Wolfwood yelped as he saw the energy building. He leapt off just as they fired a massive bolt that lifted the creature up.

Roanoke's voice was weak, but hearable. "You can't kill me! YOU CAN'T KILL ME!! I'M NOT IN MY BODY!!" he screamed as his ethereal self was hurled through the gap in space. It sealed itself in a small flash of light.

D'two watched the Dreamstalker fall limp to the ground.

"Humm… that was anticlimactic," he mumbled as he recycled the body.

"Well," Wolfwood said as he stretched his arm, "that was different. Where do you think he went? Is he dead?"

Vash smirked as the cannon reverted back into his and Rem's arms. "You know better than that, Wolfwood. I'm not sure about his actual body, but that was his soul that we just belted out of the park. It's alive out there somewhere."

"More than you would know, Vash the Stampede," N'ya said as he sat beside Rem.

Vash considered the cat. "What do you mean?" he asked it.

N'ya nodded towards the now missing hole in the sky. "You heard what he said – that was a tear in space and time that you sent him through. He could show up either in the past or the future, anytime, anywhere. There's no knowing where he'll show up again."

"He would have a leaf on the tree," Rem noted. "If he was still with us, we would be able to sense it."

A brown leaf tumbled to the ground nearby. Vash had a queasy feeling in his belly.

"I don't think I killed him…" he said. He looked at the leaf and began to shake.

"Not again… I didn't kill again!" he asked. "Did I?"

"UNTRUTH!" the cat howled. "Allow me to sense the leaf before you run judgment on yerself!"

N'ya sniffed the fallen leaf. He looked up at Vash, then Rem, then Wolfwood. He snorted.

"He is indeed dead – the truth I speak."

Vash turned white.

"Yer not guilty son," he continued glaring at Vash. He sniffed again then stared at Wolfwood.

"You are," he flatly said.

Wolfwood looked at his finger with shock. "Me? With my little finger-zapper? But he was alive when those two sent him off to god knows where…"

"You did not kill him just now, no," N'ya stated. He sniffed the leaf one more time. "This has been dead fer some time, and has just now fallen. I sense that you killed his manifestation roughly a year ago – maybe just slightly more."

Wolfwood scratched his head. "Cat, you're giving me a headache," he said. "The way things have been going in my life lately, a year and a half seems like a lifetime ago."

Vash slapped him on the shoulder. "Don't worry Nick," he said. "I know who he's talking about – we've already had our discussion about him…"

Wolfwood looked at his friend. "Oh crap, the kid!"

"Indeed! Indeed! He became Zazie the Beast," the Kuroneko said as it picked up the leaf and munched on it. "Umm… roughage! Good for what ails ya!"

"I won't ask why he just ate that leaf…" Wolfwood grumbled. "So, this is the lovely Rem you are so fond of?" he asked changing the subject. But as he did, she collapsed to the ground again.

---------------------------------------

The slick sound of steel being drawn from a scabbard was all the sound made that moment on the edge of China Grove. The men stood still eying one another as a small gust of wind blew some dust up.

Harrisburg grunted. "So, I was warned to lookout for the sheriff and his men," he said.

"That would be us, stranger," the sheriff noted as he held his katana out. He spun it so that the sharp side lay upright. The man to his right had his blade's edge down, while the man to his left held his parallel to the ground, edge to his left.

Harrisburg smirked. "You know, gathered together like that, you three make an easy target."

"Do we?" the sheriff asked. "Try us then."

"If you insist," the Sergeant said. He twisted the Cross Punisher's trigger and let fly a missile.

He stood in shocked silence as a dance was performed before him. The sheriff spun and struck the missile with the back of his sword squarely in the middle. He guided it towards the man on his right, who also spun about, bringing the shape edge of his katana across the tip of the projectile, severing the trigger from the rest. The momentum of his blow sent the missile over to the left man, who pirouetted about, striking it just below the warhead. The rocket continued on wildly out of balance, pounding the ground many times before using up its fuel. The trigger fell behind the trio and popped like a firecracker. The warhead skipped back at Harrisburg, dead.

"Not good," Harrisburg mumbled. "Not good at all…" He looked at a small window next to the launcher. It read "Magazine Empty."

He spun the Punisher about, opening up the machine gun.

"Okay maggots!" he shouted. "Let's see how you deal with many SMALL projectiles!"

He brought the gun to bear on their position, creating a cloud of smoke and dust that obscured them. As it settled, it became obvious to him that they had avoided it all. Worst yet, they had made the first strike hit.

The muzzle front of the Cross Punisher fell to the ground, cleanly slashed off at an angle. Its owner was not going to be happy.

"Blast it all," he said to himself. "There's nothing tactical about this! Remember your training Meat! Remember that you're a PLANT! And they're just humans!"

He dropped the Punisher with a thud and pulled out his Doorknob unit. He turned the volume down slightly until he felt a slight twinge. He smiled and ducked down.

A katana's blade sliced the air where his head had been just a moment prior. He instantly jumped up and head-butted the deputy that had swung at him. He threw him down and jumped forwards. A ringing sound and a rattle off his armor on his back told him that one of the assailants had hit him, but since there was no pain, only a graze wound to the flack-jacket had been made. He ran for a bit then turned to meet his oncoming foe.

The second deputy was coming at him, blade over his head. But what got his interest was the tree behind him - Trees actually.

He grinned and placed his hand palm down on the ground and sent a jolt of his own energy into it just as the man leapt into the air to bring down his sword on him.

A tree burst from the ground and snagged the deputy, wrapping its branches around his arms and legs. His sword stuck into the ground beside it.

"Geo-Plants," Harrisburg laughed to himself. "Gotta love 'em!" He now searched for the remaining man – the sheriff himself. But he was nowhere to be seen or felt. He yanked the deputy's katana from the ground and held it out.

A shadow passed over him. He took a defensive stance as he searched for its source. Looking up, he soon settled as what he saw was a sight for his sore eyes.

Beaten and battered, parts only just hanging on, the Marine Corp Landing Craft deployed a set of spindly legs and touched down near him.

"Semper Fi you bastards!" he shouted with glee as he thundered over to the hatch. He had not expected to see anyone from the Second Moon base. "Thank you god, thank you god, thank you god!" he rattled off to himself as he pounded on the hatch release even before the interior switch had been thrown.

"Hey Sarge!" a young looking Corporal yelled. "Nice use of a Geo-Plant there!"

"How the hell did you guys survive that blast?" Harrisburg yelled into the cabin.

"We were on maneuvers when it when down sir," the Corporal answered, looking less enthused than just a moment before. Harrisburg looked into the shuttle to see six Marines and a pilot.

"Where's your Lieutenant, Corporal?" he asked.

The Corporal grimaced. "We were a flight of three, sir. The Captain's ALC got clobbered first. The Lieutenant's lost its engines. Before we could tag a line onto it, a chunk of rock smashed it."

Harrisburg slammed his fist against the side of the shuttle then whipped around and punched the first deputy in the face as he had tried to sneak up on him again. He looked up at the Corporal and the others in the ALC. They all looked like new recruits.

"Okay ladies!" he bellowed. "You've come to the home of the bastard who did this to us! FALL OUT!"

Six fully garbed children (to the Sergeant) tumbled out of the ship and stood at attention before him. He looked into the cabin again.

"Are you waiting for a special invitation pilot!?" he shouted. "MOVE!"

Now he had seven children. Damn!

"Now then, let's have it - who the hell are you?" he asked as he became the Master Sergeant again.

"SIR!" the Corporal saluted. "We are the 121st Infantry Assault Corp of New Virginia City Base, Venus SIR!"

Harrisburg began to parade back and forth in front of the 'children'. "Very well… what combat have you seen, 121st Infantry Assault Corp?" he growled.

The Corporal swallowed. "SIR, NONE SIR! Only maneuvers, SIR!"

Harrisburg shook his head. "Shit… Very well ladies! You are no longer the 121st Infantry Assault Corp of New Virginia City, Venus - I want you to wipe that from your minds! You are now MY Infantry Assault Corp, of China Grove, on the planet Deneb One, or as the locals like to call it, Gunsmoke! Do you understand this meat!?"

"Sir, yes sir!" the 'children' called.

"Marines, was that all you could muster? Should I send you all to the Navy? Should I call for your MOMMIES!? I WANT TO HEAR YOU!!"

"SIR, YES SIR!" the Marines barked back.

Harrisburg tossed the katana he had to the Corporal then picked up the one that the second deputy had been carrying. "Then let's show these Plants just who we are. Corporal, we need a plan. You two – stow this man and the one in the tree in the ALC's latrine. And pass out the Doorknobs, even for these two sleeping beauties. GOT THAT!?"

"SIR, YES SIR!"

He smiled and let his gruff side slip aside. "But crap, I'm glad to see you," he finally told them. The Corporal smiled and slapped him on the shoulder, then divvied up the troops to carry out the given orders.

---------------------------------------

"Now this wasn't expected," Brandywine said as there was a clattering inside the bulb.

North examined the containment vessel. "This shape is better suited to take on external pressure strikes, not internal ones. It's that large piece I'm worried about."

When the rods were inserted into the unit, the parts of the isotope that were Plantoid in origin separated from the carbon that had held it and was now striking the bottom of the vessel with loud hard thunks.

"What happens if the glass breaks?" Brandywine asked cautiously.

"We get the hell out of here, that's what," North said watching a rather large piece of carbon that was starting to dangle from the clamp seats.

"You mean just you get out of here, don't you?" Sara asked. She was surprised at the look she was getting from the preacher.

"No, I mean WE," he said. "You two only breathe that yellow stuff when you're plugged in and charged. Otherwise, when you're out here and that gas comes out, you'll get cyanide poisoning just as much as I would."

Brandywine gritted her teeth. "Thanks for the warning!" she grunted. She then caught her breath as the carbon chunk fell from the clamp.

But before it could strike the glass, an arm reached out from the mass of proto-plastic matter and snagged it. A face formed and looked about with confusion.

"Where am I?" the Plantoid asked. "Last I remember, my ship was crashing." She suddenly looked at her fingers on her left hand. "What has happened?"

"Now is not the time to ask, ma'am," North told her through his communicator. "Regenerate to 'A' level quickly – you're in danger."

The Plantoid looked around as if she was searching for something. "Why do I feel like I'm not all here?" she asked. "I feel… scattered."

North snorted. Sara took the communicator.

"Please – it is imperative that you restore yourself," the officer confided with her sister Plant. "I will attempt to explain it to you as we go. But first – what is your name?"

The Plantoid looked up at the officer, her face showing confusion. "Montre," she said.

Kinza stepped around the outside of his shuttle, which he had placed near the center of Olympia City. It had a hot noon-time glare to it. He scratched the back of his neck and looked at a scanning rod in his hand.

"Ooh, it's hot out here," Millie exclaimed as she and Meryl stepped out of the shuttle. "I thought these mountain-pass towns were supposed to be cooler than the plains."

Kinza grunted. At least she didn't have a permanent coat of fur to deal with. "It's this plateau we're on – it's open enough to take in this heat easily from the suns – and this quartz soil doesn't help it any." He held the rod out and scanned the area.

"Trouble Mr. Kinza?" Meryl asked.

Kinza looked at the ball at the base of the rod and shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "Something's not right. I know after what happen the other day, and then last night, I would expect the few remaining town folk to be held up in their homes, but no one is moving in any of them."

"It's hot, that's why," Millie exclaimed.

Kinza shook his head and pointed over at a house with the rod. "There's a guy who is standing in the middle of his living room – he's been there for the last 5 minutes. No, there's something up."

"I sense a Plant nearby," Miami said as she joined them. She was giving the town a hard long stare. "Mr. Kinza is correct, there is something happening here."

Kinza stepped away from the shuttle looking about. He then pointed at something down the main street.

"I think that's proof," he said. There, a boy and a girl hung in the air as they had been stopped mid-run.

Meryl gasped then turned beet red. "Horloge the Time-Keeper!" she snarled.

Kinza noticed the angry reaction to that name. "I take it that you're acquainted with this Horloge?"

Meryl snapped him a coursed look. "I thought you were an observer!"

Kinza grumbled and scraped the ground with his foot. "Look, I don't get the chance to see the entire history of this planet, only snippets."

Meryl reached into her cloak and pulled a pair of Derringers. "We've had a run-in with her time warping tricks – Millie and Nicholas for example?"

"Ah yes, she's the one who did that is she?" Kinza noted. "Then yes, we should be ready for her, just in case."

"Wasn't she in the company of the man who created the shotguns?" Miami asked. Meryl and Millie looked at one another.

"Sandusky the Forge!" they said together much to Mr. Kinza's amusement.

"Do you think they came back here?" Millie asked.

"They were here not long ago," Meryl said.

Kinza looked at the end of town where the warehouse had stood that was their base of operations and now was a deep crater. "Well, their base is so much rubble. 'Course, there's not much left of Olympia City anyway. But that doesn't mean they didn't have a second base."

"Very good, Mr. Fuzzy," a voice rang through their heads.

"That's her!" Meryl yelled and started jogging about the square attempting to locate its host. Kinza quickly grabbed his Doorknob and gave it a twist to maximum. He was greeted by laughter.

"Oh, Mr. Fuzzy, didn't you listen to them?" the voice said as he looked about. He saw Meryl slow down, gun raised, hair flying, cape flapping, and her pendants – the SEEDS Officer badge and her Doorknob flying about. Her foot touched the ground then she froze. "I am the Time-Keeper! Your blocking device does not affect me."

He pulled out his scanning rod and moved towards Meryl. It was slow and hard to make progress. "Well, it works partly at least," he thought to himself. He scanned the Insurance Girl and saw she was fine, only suspended in time. He looked over at the others. Millie also was transfixed, as was Miami, which he found a bit disturbing. This person could hold her fellow Plants as well.

"Okay," he said as best he could in this molasses state. "So you've frozen them in time. Now what?"

"My, Mr. Fuzzy, you surprise me," Horloge giggled. "You were correct, I guess. That little toy of yours does block most of my control over you. Well, as for what I'm going to do with them, it all depends."

"Yea?" he struggled as he moved towards Millie. "Depends on what?"

She laughed again. "Well, in your case, it depends on how long your charge lasts on your toy. As for the others, well, I have their time in my hands. And this one…"

Kinza looked over his shoulder. Meryl was being spun around slowly on the toe of her foot. He gritted his teeth for the worst.

"I know that this one is the personal favorite of Vash the Stampede," Horloge gloated. "What can I do with this one, ea?"

"If you're smart, you won't do a thing to her," Kinza yelled. "Vash might be a pacifist, but he's killed for her before when push came to shove. Do you really want to bring that down on yourself?"

He heard the sound of boots stepping over a wood floor. He turned to see a tall woman in sunglasses and a white sequined jacket parading down the hotel's porch. She was also holding a pike with two orbs on the end. She smiled and twirled the rod once.

"You do have a point," she said with a smirk, "but time is on my side. What is he now, one hundred thirty some odd years old?"

"Damn! This does not sound good," Kinza murmured to himself as he reached for his Plant Snare.

"Well, he should be dating someone more his age, don't you think?" Horloge gestured towards Meryl. The young Insurance Girl rapidly began to age as Kinza watched. Her hair grew and turned silver, her back arched over and she became frail and pale.

"STOP IT! HUMAN'S CAN'T TAKE AGING LIKE THAT!" Kinza shouted as he pushed his body to its limits to move through the quagmire time had become to him. It shocked Horloge to see that he had actually made it to her with something that made her step back in fear.

"A Plant Snare, how quaint!" she said with a hint of surprise in her voice. "You wouldn't dare to fire that at me. Who else can return her to her proper state?"

"Don't push me lady," he snarled. "My Captain deals with time streams and reverse entropy all the time, and could probably fix this situation by himself! So if you don't want to be separated from your Source…"

Horloge saw the energy building in the Snare's chamber. She smiled and leaned back on one leg.

"Oh very well," she snidely remarked as she returned Meryl's youthful looks. "It was only an adjustment of time. It's not like they'll be with each other for very long anyway…"

Kinza growled. "What do you mean?" he snapped at her. She smirked.

"Time-Keeper, remember Fuzzy?" she chided while pointing at her head with the end of the pike. "Not only can I adjust time around something or someone, I can also read!" She leaned over and placed her face near the Tomassamassa's.

"I can see the future!" she cooed. She attempted to snatch the snare, but was driven back by a spark from the device. She waived her smarting hand up and down and sucked on her stinging finger.

"Big deal," Kinza spat. "That's our business as well."

She looked down on him from the porch. "Oh, but I mean your future, Fuzzy dear."

Kinza shook his head. "If you're expecting me to ask 'what about my future' I'm afraid I already know it, sister."

She shook her head. "Tsk tsk tsk, how sad. To know that you're going to die. And in such an indignant way too. I won't be able to call you Mr. Fuzzy anymore!"

He laughed. "Lady, you are the limit! So I have an incurable illness, big deal! I came to this dimension because it keeps it in check."

"Ah, but there will be a time when it doesn't," she said as she sat down and crossed her legs. "Would you like to know what it will be like when that happens?"

"You are a sick…" Kinza started. But as he did, his arms felt like a thousand needles had just pricked them. The Plant Snare dropped to the ground. When Kinza could open his eyes again, he found that the fur on his hands and forearms was starting to fall off in clumps.

"The Slyznics! What have you done to the Slyznics?" he cried as he fell to his knees.

"Slyznics? That's a disgusting name for a disgusting disease," Horloge noted. "My dear Mr. Fuzzy, I may not have been able to completely break through your barrier created by that toy of yours, but this Slyznics is a surface disease, and not protected by that thing you're wearing." She sneered at the red and blistered arms.

"Kantar's mane!" Kinza cursed. He grabbed the Plant Snare while ignoring the pain the best he could and pointed it at Horloge. "Lady, you just got on my Don't Like list," he snarled in a near perfect cat-like growl.

"Mr. Kinza, put that down."

The blisters and the mange was nearly up to his elbows. He grimaced a look over his shoulder to see Knives standing beside him.

"Heh," he grunted. "She didn't freeze you in time, did she?"

Knives made a slight laughing sound. "She couldn't freeze me if she wanted to," he said. Kinza could not help but notice how cold that felt. He also noticed that Knives was intensely staring at Horloge.

"Why my dear Knives, what an unexpected pleasure," she said. "I'd say 'Greetings my lord,' but that honor seems to have been bestowed on someone new… or should I say someone old?"

"Has it now?" the younger of the brothers said as he stepped towards her. "Do you not remember the night that you came to my bed? You used your powers to keep the world in darkness for 6 whole days. Was that another honor bestowed on your new 'old' lord?"

Horloge looked down. "Don't talk about that in front of him!"

"Oh no, please," Kinza harped. "You've blathered my secret about – I want to hear more about yours!"

Knives cleared his throat. "Actually, I think she was talking about him."

Kinza looked the other way and saw a tall man in a feathered jacket standing in the middle of the street near the boy and girl that they had seen earlier.

"Oh tell me that isn't that Sandusky dude," Kinza grumbled.

The man flung open his jacket, revealing the pair of custom built shotguns hanging on a lanyard he had left. He drew one out and held it up.

Knives smirked. He reached over and grabbed Horloge by the chin and yanked her towards himself with such force, she dropped her pike. He slammed his lips into hers causing her sunglasses to fly over to Kinza's knees.

Kinza swallowed. "Knives, I hope that kiss is worth it, because the reaction south of here is not at all friendly."

Sandusky spun-cocked the shotgun and held it out.

"MILLIONS KNIVES!" the Forge yelled. "LET MY WIFE GO!"

When he said 'wife," Kinza felt a surge of needle-like pains run up his arms, a reaction from Horloge he figured. Sheets of fur were now falling out of the sleeves of his uniform.

Knives offered the man a rude gesture. He then added a jolt of energy sending into the woman through their kiss. She snapped back, rolled her eyes and passed out.

Those held by her time-lock were set free. Meryl though dropped to the ground.

"MERYL!" Kinza shouted. Even though the pain had stopped, he was too injured himself to assist her.

"HORLOGE!" Sandusky yelled as he began to convert the gun into an Angel Arm cannon.

The Plantoid inside the vessel grabbed at her head. "Horloge! My sister! What has happened?"

Sara looked at North, who shrugged. "She's Horloge's sister?"

Brandywine looked like she was about to be ill. "She used her own sister to make those guns?"

Sara bent down to look the Plantoid in the face. "Montre, what is it? What did you feel?"

The woman in the vessel looked up at Sara and smiled. It was a cold and nearly heartless smile. "Nothing… nothing she didn't deserve," she said as she looked at her fingers again. "I can sense someone converting a gun into the cannon near her though." She looked at the officer with a sad expression. "I guess what you said was correct. She did use my fingers to make those guns." She lowered her head and began to cry.

"Montre… MONTRE!" Sara called. "I'm sorry, Montre, but I must ask you – can you control the guns?"

Her long hair covered her head effectively hiding her expression to the officer as she hung from the support clamp. She made a simple nod to say yes.

Knives released Horloge, letting her slump heavily to the porch. He turned and glared at Sandusky.

"Fire that here, and you'll get your lady," he told his fellow Plantoid.

"I'm very good at pin-point shots with this thing," an enraged Sandusky snarled. He powered up and aimed at his target.

He envisioned the gun firing a stream of energy which struck the man before him, tearing his body apart. He gritted his teeth and pulled the trigger in his mind.

"Excuse me sir…"

The voice startled Sandusky – it was disturbingly close. He looked to his right and saw a woman's face at point-blank range.

The face of Montre was looking back at him from his shoulder connection to the cannon. She scowled at the man who had defiled her.

"I have cut off your connection to The Source, Sandusky," she said to him in a voice that seemed out of sync with her mouth. "You are now on your own. I serve a new master." She looked over at Knives. Then the cannon started to melt off his arm.

Sandusky shrieked in pain. Kinza squinted at the sight as he watched the horror the Forge was going through. The cannon's mass wasn't the only thing sloughing off his arm. The shotgun emerged from the Plant material. Then the bones of his arm, as it too had come off. He dropped to his knees. The gun, which was still in cannon mode, so the isotope was still exposed, clattered to the ground. The black rod-like section popped out of its housing and spun wildly in the street until friction finally slowed it down.

"Frack!" Kinza grunted under his breath. "I would say that Sara was successful."

A small black metal plate plopped in front of him. He looked up at Knives and sat back in shock. Knives had his old gun in his hand, and he was straining to convert it.

"Knives, what are you doing?" he asked as calmly as he could. The gun began to merge with the hand, and a few of the feathery appendages sprouted. Knives then glanced down at the Tomassamassa.

"One tenth power should be enough," he commented as he powered it up.

Kinza quickly looked over the situation. "Knives, the children… Knives… THE CHILDREN!!"

The boy and girl who had been in the street near Sandusky were still behind him.

Knives squinted and aimed. A bolt fired from the gun and struck Sandusky dead center in the forehead. He fell back into the dirt.

"I'm very good at pin-point shots with this thing," he said quoting his target's own words. He looked over at the prone body of Horloge on the porch. "I guess you're a widow now," he told her though she was still out cold. He looked at his gun, and the small transformation it had gone through for him. He snorted a laugh at it.

"Ridiculous!" he commented.

"Hey!"

Knives looked down at Kinza.

"Put the plates back on that, will ya? Not all of us are impervious to the radiation being put out by those things!"

Knives nodded his head towards him and collected the shields and screws. He pocketed the gun and parts then surprised Kinza again by pulling out a medi-kit he had brought out of the shuttle with him.

"What are you doing?" Kinza asked as he watched Knives pull out the wound healer.

"Returning the favor," he told him. "After all, did you not heal my own wounds a few months ago?" He began working on the Tomassamassa's arms.

"You should check on Miss Meryl first," Kinza said looking back at the body being cradled in Millie's lap.

Knives shook his head. "She will be fine – she is just exhausted from the time snap, much like that other girl was when she was returned to her youth. Besides, I owe you."

"And I'm not human," Kinza thought to himself. "Why not just shout it out for crying out loud?"

"Hey… wait a minute… How did he know about Millie regaining her youth when she came back from the past?"

Knives raised an eyebrow when he saw the look he was getting from Kinza. He laughed slightly, drawing another perplexed look from his patient.

"I viewed the journal log of the Steamer – that's why I know about Millie's… umm… adventure," he explained.

"Ah," Kinza said, still giving him the puzzled eye. He was about to say something about it when Millie shrieked.

"MERYL!" she screamed.

Kinza and Knives looked back at the Insurance Girl and Miami. Where Meryl had been in the lap of her friend there was now nothing.

Kinza caught it first. His ears twisted cat-like like radar. He heard the footfalls on the quartz-soil. He looked west and saw a trail of dust heading off.

"Whoever that is, they're fast," he noted about the kidnapper. "Another Plant?"

"No," Knives stated. "Human… the last of the original Gung Ho Guns. He went by the name of Goethe Bluesummers."

"Went by?" Kinza prodded. "What do you mean by 'went by'? With a name like Bluesummers, I'd take it he's related to Legato."

Knives shook his head. "He was suppose to be Goethe de Rayo… the Thunderbolt… his enhancements were to his legs. But something in the process made him extra sensitive towards Legato. They formed a strong kinship, and Goethe started calling him his brother – even taking on the Bluesummers name." He looked down to see his patient getting up.

"Come on, we've got to catch up with him!" Kinza growled.

"But Mr. Kinza," Millie asked worried. "Your arms!"

Kinza snorted. "Don't worry about them… a wound healer can't help them much anyway. Besides, there's other ways to fly a shuttle."

"You're going to fly that with your arms in THAT condition?" Boston asked.

"What? You thought I was going to run?" Kinza asked with a large dose of sarcasm. "Don't worry – we're trained on this method as well." He jumped aboard with Knives close behind. The other also got on board, though Boston seemed to be mumbling something about collateral damages and no-fault insurances.

Kinza plopped down in the pilot's seat, and gingerly pushed a few switches with his sore pinky finger.

"Computer," he said with a grimace, "switch to verbal commands with computer safeties set for seven."

"Acknowledged," the controls said. "Command?"

"Ah!" the pilot yelped as Knives returned to his work with the wound healer from the co-pilot's seat. "Vertical launch to a hundred feet - Scan for any fast moving human signatures west of our location. Bring up data files from history bank – use the stored genetic codes for Meryl Stryfe to assist you."

Knives raised his eyebrow again. "Genetic codes?" he asked.

Kinza gave a half-hearted laugh. "It's standard procedures now that we have transmats. Never know when we'd have to yank someone out of danger. Shame we can't use them here…"

"Why is that?" Miami asked.

Kinza huffed. "The quartz in the ground messes them up at long range and the fact that they're moving at about a hundred twenty miles… I mean iles an hour would mean that even if we could get in range to use it, we'd only splatter her across our bulkhead in the process. It's still a new technology."

"Target located," the computer announced. "Now zero point two seven five mark fourteen, due west at one hundred twenty three miles per hour."

Kinza glanced back into the cabin. "Everyone grab a seat and strap in!" he ordered. "Computer, overtake!"

The ship spun in place then shot off towards the west in pursuit.

Horloge stirred. She held her head and attempted to get up. She fell back as the world spun.

"Damn! What happened?" she asked herself. The answer flashed through her head. Knives… a blinding blot of energy… darkness…

The energy…

Oh god, the energy!

"Oh god! Millions Knives! What did you do to me!?" she shouted.

"Lady, what are you hollerin' about on my porch?"

She lifted her hands away from her tear-streaked face to see a crusty old man looking down at her. She grabbed her pike and stopped time in her area again. She attempted to get up then she grabbed her belly.

"Damn you Knives… damn you half-human piece of trash!" she cursed as she held onto a column that supported the roof of the porch. She glanced to her left.

She then fell to her knees.

"Sandy?" she whispered. "SANDY!?"

There was no movement from the body in the street.

"SANDY!!!"

---------------------------------------

Harrisburg looked at the team assembled before him. He was a bit surprised at just who he had there. Of the seven, two were women, and two weren't Plantoids but humans! Damn equal-rights law… it was going to get them killed!

He saw the look he was getting from one of the women and cleared his throat. He figured he had broadcast that a little bit.

"Dawn and Greg are probably the best Marines here, Sergeant!" she beamed into his mind. He smiled and stepped towards her.

"Name and rank, soldier," he asked her.

She snapped to. "Private Cindy Edmonton, SIR!" she barked, but never dropped her scowl towards him.

He looked down on her – she was a small Marine. "Ah – named for the legendary Cindy were you?"

"Y-yes sir?" she said a bit surprised.

"You do realize that she could be looking down on us right now," he said quietly to her. She swallowed.

"Sir?"

He reached down and tapped on her Doorknob. "If I heard your – comment – before then you don't have this turned up high enough, private." She adjusted it as he stepped away.

"Keep your 'knobs up full here," he continued his orders to the rest of the troops. "The Federation gave them to you for a reason, and in this place they are required! Your target is a Plantoid named Janus – he is a mutt-splice of two life forms, but his overall scan readings are Plant. Your second target is the leader of this little skirmish we are in. He goes by the name of D'two… but we know this bastard as Delta Two, the brother of our lady Cindy, and the Devil of Detroit."

Private Edmonton swallowed.

"Both of these men have great mental powers – both are extremely dangerous, and I want both of their heads at my feet by this evening, GOT THAT!?"

"SIR, YES SIR!" they barked.

"CORPORAL," the Sergeant finished, "give these ladies their orders!"

"SIR!" the Corporal yelled then stepped to a roughly laid out map. "Johnstown, AC, you take sector one - Gordon and Bridgeport, sector two - Sanders and Edmonton, sector three – the Sergeant and I will take sector four. Remember, this town in full of human captives… but dangerous captives. They are being influenced by our hosts, so be ready – do not kill – try to subdue, or incapacitate them. Have your Tasers ready. Do not be afraid to use them. In these conditions, even your grandmother would be a danger. Shoot to kill ONLY as a last resort. Those of you with any special powers will find that they are muted with the 'knobs up so high, so trust in your gun – trust in your Taser – and most of all trust in your partner – be careful out there. READY!?"

"SIR, YES SIR!"

They broke into their small paired groups and went towards their section of town they had been assigned. Harrisburg opened a side panel of the ALC and pulled an arm down, opening a small hatch on the roof of the shuttle. A series of ball-like drones emerged and started to scatter through the town, assisting in the probing. He picked up a large machine gun and his new katana and started to follow the Corporal.

He spun around, holding his sword up, clanging it with another that was being shoved towards his face. The sheriff had been hiding on the top of the shuttle, and had leapt off in an attempt to catch him off guard.

"I thought you'd never come off that roof!" Harrisburg grinned at the sheriff. He let the gun go and held his palm up. He sent the sheriff flying into the side of the ship with an energy slam that knocked him out. He quickly joined his other sleeping friends in the small brig/latrine.

Sanders and Edmonton moved along the streets of sector three randomly scampering to the edge of buildings and peeking in the doorways. They made their way towards the church in the middle of town.

Sanders checked his Doorknob and looked over at his partner. She was on the other corner waving him on. She cocked her gun then looked at the side of it where a display was showing her the readings from the scanning drones. An entrance to the tunnel complex that lead back towards the ship wrecks was in the church somewhere. She looked back at her partner. He was moving towards the front entrance. He looked through the windows in the doors and gave her a hand sign. He was going in.

"SINNERS! REPENT!"

Sanders spun about. The church was empty, save the preacher up at the pulpit. He was flaying his arms about and crying towards the ceiling.

"THE WORLD IS CORRUPT SINNERS, DO YOU HEAR ME!?" the man bellowed then looked down at the lone parishioner with the large gun at the doorway. "AND DO YOU KNOW WHAT MAKES THIS WORLD SO CORRUPT, SINNERS? HUMANS, CATS AND DOGS, IN THAT ORDER!"

Sanders readied his Taser. "Father, where is the entrance to the ships?" he requested.

"BLASTFEMER!" the preacher yelled. "BLASTFEMER, HOW DARE YE TRANSGRESS IN THIS HALLOWED HALL OF SANCTUARY? THY DESICRATE THE CHURCH OF OUR LORD AND MASTER D'TWO!"

"Father, where is the entrance to the ships?" Sanders repeated as he brought the gun up to his face.

"Ah," the Pastor exclaimed. "I see now – you are not with our lord. Your mind is blocked – the devil has you within his grasps and you drown in his grasp. I shall free you!"

"Father!" Sanders yelled. "Father, please don't… move… stop……"

"You shall see the light my son…" the preacher said with a grin. "You shall – YEAAA!"

Two barbed spikes attached to thread-like wires protruded from the Father's chest. He fell over into a pew.

Sanders shook his head. A rap to his helmet woke him up further. "What happened?" he asked.

Edmonton tapped on his helmet again then started to retrieve her fired Taser's cable rounds. "The Doorknob protects from intruders through mind control, but not if it's done visually," she explained to the dumbfounded Private. He sighed.

"Damn, the Sarge was right," he grumbled. He was jolted back by her fist against his shoulder.

"It could have happened to any of us," she said then returned to looking around the church. She only got a few steps in when something ricocheted off her thick helmet. She kicked up her legs and fell backwards, stunned more than injured. Sanders was down beside her almost immediately.

"Are you okay Cindy?" he asked her, keeping an eye above them to find where the shot had come from.

"Yea," she groaned. "What happened?"

"You took a bullet off the helmet," he told her as more came down and struck the wooden pews around them. The fire seemed to be coming from a balcony to their left. Sanders sprayed the area with bullets, gathered Edmonton up and slid her quickly towards the wall. But another shot struck that wall – now there seemed to be more coming from the RIGHT balcony! He returned fire and dragged his partner into an alcove.

The sound of gunfire was making the young recruits jump a bit. Nearby in sector two, Gordon and Bridgeport were attempting to check out another entrance to the base under the school when the shooting had started over at the church.

"Stay in your sectors!" was the command over their com units. Gordon sighed and nodded towards Bridgeport. Both charged up their Tasers.

"I'll go in first Dawn," Bridgeport whispered. "Be ready."

She nodded as he brought his boot to bear on the handle of the door. It slammed open and he jumped in. She followed a moment later.

For such a small town it was a large school. There were two doors off the main classroom – one to a library and one that led into some living quarters for the teacher.

The school was empty. Gordon checked out the first door, which was to the library. She held her nose – the books seemed mildewed and nasty.

Bridgeport entered the living quarters. There still seemed to be no one about as he moved into the main living room. The school and library seemed to have been added to an existing house which was two stories tall. The layout seemed odd though to Bridgeport. The feel of the place just seemed less than educational.

Maybe it was the lace drapes on the windows.

Gordon entered soon after. She saw the strange drapes as well. She heard creaking up the stairs that were to her left – she assumed that it was Bridgeport. Finding little in the parlor, she too started up the steps.

There was a thunk from the top of the stairs – like that made by a heavy rifle being dropped.

Dawn's heart stopped for a moment. She gasped for air, screwed up her courage, and charged the remaining part of the steps towards the open door where the sound had come from.

She found Bridgeport standing just past the entry, his arms lax by his side, and his gun on the floor. When she came around to look at his face, she found a blank stare.

"Jim! JIM!" she yelled. There was no response from the glazed expression, but he did manage to speak.

"Missus Perkins," he drooled. It was then that Gordon noticed that he had lipstick marks round his mouth. "Schoolmarm…" was the only other thing he managed to say.

"Oh, another visitor," she then heard from behind her. She spun about to find a tall sultry looking woman in white and black lace… somethings… coming out of a bathroom. The woman walked over to a dresser and proceeded to put on some earrings and other jewelry. "Are you here to be taught a lesson as well?" she asked the shaking soldier.

"What have you done to Jim?" Dawn demanded.

A hand was placed on her gun. She looked over to find it was Bridgeport's.

"She is my teacher," he said in a slightly child-like way. "Would you like to be taught too?"

"Jim, what are you doing?" Dawn yelped as he forced the gun away from its target and got disturbingly close to her. He lifted his helmet and planted his lips against hers. She glanced over at the teacher, who was acting as if she was doing the kissing.

Gordon did what she had to do. She brought the gun up between them and squeezed the trigger to the Taser. The lines caught Bridgeport on the chin behind the strap to his helmet. The shock broke him away from her, but not before he passed some of the discharge into her as well. He fell flat on his back.

Gordon dropped to one knee. Groggily, she looked up and saw that the teacher was looking a bit woozy as well.

"Well, I wasn't expecting that!" Perkins said as she sat down on the side of her bed. "I'll have to give you my special lesson!" She stared at Gordon's eyes.

Dawn felt her limbs go numb. They started to wobble upright then stand. Her mind felt as if it were falling away from her soul. She walked over to the bed and sat beside the schoolmarm. The woman released her helmet's strap and removed it. She caressed the cheek of the soldier.

"Such a beautiful face to be playing soldier," Perkins said as she turned Gordon's blank stare her way. "I will teach you a new way – I'll make you my personal soldier – a bringer of only love and peace!" She pulled the pin that had held Dawn's brunette hair up. "Such a waste for someone as pretty as you to be a soldier…"

"D-damn good partner too," a voice said from across the room. As Perkins turned to look, Bridgeport fired his Taser into her from his prone position. She was tossed into her bed, waking Gordon from her stupor.

"Jim!" she cried as she rushed to his side. She removed the two contacts that had struck him from her own Taser and reeled it in. "I don't get it – why are you awake, and she isn't?"

He laughed. "Because I'm a Plantoid, and she's a human. I can take a jolt like that. Besides, I sent some of it her way anyway." He took Gordon's offered hand.

"She was right you know," he said as he was helped up by his partner.

Dawn looked up at him. "What?"

"You are pretty," he grinned as he stepped over to the body on the bed and snapped a set of handcuffs on her, then draped a Doorknob over her neck. "Come on, let's find that entrance." He tossed Gordon's helmet and hair clip to her. She watched him as he stepped out of the room.

They checked their scanner screens on their guns. The tunnel seemed to come up in the middle of the classroom. Bridgeport lifted a carpet that had been placed in the middle of the room. It covered a sizable hatch.

Gordon took a position to cover the opening when Bridgeport lifted the lid. He nodded to her and pulled as fast as he could.

Dawn gasped. She took a step back and lowered her gun.

Bridgeport had fallen back with the loose hatch but scrambled to his feet when he saw her expression. He grabbed his gun just as six shots struck Dawn's flack jacket. She fell backwards.

He came up and over the edge of the hole and aimed.

He was greeted by the faces of children - The students of the school? He didn't have time to guess, as they all had small guns. He tumbled back as they fired. He quickly twisted and rolled away from where he first had gone, as the kids were now firing through the floorboards. He got to his feet, grabbed the stunned Gordon by her torn jacket and darted out of the schoolhouse.

The children in the church were keeping Edmonton and Sanders caught up in the small cubby area. He checked his scanner's readings. The opening to the tunnels was behind the pulpit, and there seemed to be a large group of people in it.

"There's no choice," Sanders said to his partner. "We've got to get out of here."

Cindy was alert enough now to agree. "Any ideas on how?" she asked.

Sanders cocked the gun and pointed it at the wall of the cubby. "COVER YOUR FACE!" he yelled as he fired heavily into the plaster. When he was done, a sizable hole was open to the outside, and he tossed Edmonton through it.

He looked hard through the dust he had created. He hoped that the shooters would have a hard time seeing him when he dove through. He counted to three and jumped.

A shot fired.

There was a sharp pain in his side – that unfortunate place in the vest where there's no protection, under the armpit. He hit the ground with an ugly thud.

"Oh god!" Edmonton yelped. "MAN DOWN! MAN DOWN!" she yelled out as she attempted to drag him away. She summoned her Plant strength and hauled her partner over her shoulder and ran out of the sector. By the time she returned to the landing craft, she was covered in his blood. She soon saw Gordon and Bridgeport hobbling back to the ship as well. They both gasped as the sight. It wasn't long before Harrisburg and the Corporal arrived as well.

"They were children, Sergeant," Edmonton cried. "What are we suppose to do with children?"

Harrisburg thought for a moment. He was about to speak, when another voice interrupted.

"Well now, that's one… do you care to loose another?"

"Janus!" he spat. "JANUS YOU DOG! I WILL KILL YOU! I WILL PERSONALLY KILL YOU!"

---------------------------------------

The tree shook, and a small branch dropped to the ground, followed by another leaf. N'ya sniffed it and sneezed. Then another leaf fell, though this one was still green.

"Oh my, oh my," the Kuroneko expressed with a touch of sorrow in his voice. "Such waste…"

"What?" Vash asked as he tended to Rem. He then saw the leaves. "Who were they?"

The cat sniffed the new leaf. "That other one – phiph!" N'ya said with a puff of air. "Too much like pepper that one was… Sandusky was his name."

"Sandusky the Forge?" Wolfwood exclaimed. "All right! That's one bad guy down! Who got him?"

N'ya looked up at the preacher with a slight distain. He then gingerly sniffed the leaf again, his nose curling slightly as if only to smell what needed to be smelled. He shook his head and sneezed again. He glared at Wolfwood.

"The things I do for you humans!" he snorted as he rubbed his nose with his paw. "The answer to your question is that he was done in by Knives."

Vash stared at the cat. He then looked down on the face of Rem, who he thanked god was still unconscious. He hoped that what caused his brother to kill again was going to be controllable. He looked back at the Kuroneko and found that he was pawing the other leaf.

"Who was that one?" he asked.

N'ya sniffed and nibbled a little on the edge. He then spat it out and looked at his tongue as if he had just eaten dirt.

"It was a Marine," he reported. "Young by the looks of it."

Vash sat back on his haunches, and Wolfwood fell against the tree.

"No… not Harrisburg…" Vash said under his breath.

"All I did was argue with that jar-head," Wolfwood commented while rubbing the back of his neck.

"Harrisburg?" N'ya asked. "No - no, untruth! This man's name was Sanders – Greg Sanders… He was a Private with some Plant in him… hence the reason why my tongue is burning! PLEAAA!"

Vash leaned forwards. "A Space Marine? One of the Venus troops?" he asked.

N'ya sniffed again. "Yup," he said. He then saw something in the tree and quickly climbed it.

"Then some of them made it through the explosion of the Second Moon!" Wolfwood said. "That's great!"

Vash glared at him. "At what costs? At what costs?" He shook his head and sighed. "I've got to get back there… but I can't leave Rem like this… N'ya…"

He looked for where the cat went. He heard a movement in the tree and looked up.

"What are you doing up there?" he asked the stray Kuroneko.

"A bud!" the cat exclaimed. "A new life!"

"In all this mayhem, someone is having a baby?" Wolfwood grunted.

"No, not just yet, Mr. Preacher," the cat said. "This is only a bud – it has to be nurtured first." He sniffed it and crossed his eyes. He shook his head and acted a bit drunk.

"Do you always act like that when you sniff a bud?" Wolfwood snorted.

"Nyaaaa nyaaa nyaaa!" he swayed. "Congratulations!" he giggled as he nearly fell off the branch.

Vash placed his hands on his hips. "Congratulations for what?" he asked the stupefied kitty.

"Congratulations to yuoooo, Mr. Vash the Stampedo! You's gonna be an uncle!"

Vash stood up. Wolfwood stared at his friend. The cat fell out of the tree.

oOo

**Next episode**

_**The sands of fate flow at a trickle's pace against the winds of time **_

Is thus a new Savior or a Satan yet to be born?

Time feeds us - nurtures us - makes us strong

We know not of entropy. We know not of decay.

The children of Angel Five shall be the chosen to lead to the future

Fate has decreed it

Time stands behind it

I come in peace

Next Episode of TRIGUN: MOON CHILD - Chapter Eighteen - Spider Web

Resistance is futile

"China Grove" and character references

©1973 Warner Brothers Records/Tom Johnston – Warner Tamerlane Publishing/The Doobie Brothers  
"Evil Dead" (Chainsaw Roanoke) ©1983 Anchor Bay Entertainment  
"Alien" - Mother Alien ©1979 Twentieth-Century Fox  
"Star Wars: Episode 2" - the Ackley ©2002 LucasFilm, Twentieth-Century Fox  
Tasers ©2003 Taser International  
North, Elb Kinza, UNS Forrestal and GENUINE DOORKNOB, ACTiVES ©2003 DMS – Used with permission  
All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow  
Roanoke the Dreamstalker, N'ya ©2003 S. Nordwall - Used with permission  
Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0311.27


	21. Spider Web

**Chapter Eighteen**

TRIGUN:**  
****MOON CHILD**

**Spider Web**

**By R. A. Stott**

**EDITOR'S NOTE: Parental Warning – Language and Graphic References**

"Damn, he's fast!"

Kinza told the computer to bring the throttle up more on the shuttle's thrusters just a bit more as Knives continued to work on his injured arms. As impossible as it seemed, his target was continuing to increase in speed.

"Any faster, and he'll hurt Meryl just by the wind pressure," he grumbled.

"Alert – Alert," the computer intoned. "There is an energy buildup at target location."

"What in the world?" Miami asked aloud seeing a power field appearing in front of the speeding Goethe on the monitor. She looked at the Tomassamassa. He had a smile on his face and was nodding at what he too was seeing.

"Up?" she asked, directing him with her thumb.

"Exactly," he agreed. "Computer, Z plus 500 meters, rapid."

"Z plus 500 Meters, aye," the computer repeated. The shuttle leaped higher, making some of its passengers a bit nauseous. Things settled as the ship reached its new altitude.

"What's going on?" Dallas moaned as he lumbered forward. "Was he going to fire on us?"

Kinza watched the readings. "No," he answered. "He was reading our moves. He raised a shield after I mentioned that his speed would injure Meryl. Not bad since we're wearing these Doorknobs."

Knives looked at his pendant. "Is it because he's not a Plant?" he asked.

"Not really," Kinza noted. "These are supposed to work for any mind telepathy – they weren't developed only because of Plants - No, I think it was something else. And I think I know why… computer, code 1-7A."

"Code 1-7A, aye," it said. The rest saw little and heard less. They looked at Kinza who was reading a scanner.

"Okay… Computer, increase speed by 1 unit," he ordered. "Now we'll see if I'm right."

"How so?" Miami asked.

Kinza nodded towards the scanner. "Every time I've ordered a speed increase, he's matched us. And by this reading, we're now overtaking him slowly."

Knives looked up at the large domed window before them. "Ah, of course - Vibrations."

Kinza nodded. "He's sensitive to the vibrations. I have to verbally order the computer to do what I want it to do – hence he's been listening to me all this time."

Dallas looked a bit bewildered. "But… how did you…"

"Code 1-7A," Kinza grinned. "I raised my own shields. It doesn't make us quiet to him, since he'll still be able to hear us above him, but he won't hear what I'm saying." He looked back at his readings and grunted. "Yup, he's increased by 1 unit – but it took him longer to compensate."

"Interesting that he would shield Meryl," Miami pondered as she rubbed her chin. "Is he protecting her?"

"Oh, very definitely so," Kinza surmised. "Any ideas on that subject Knives? You worked with him after all."

Knives twisted the wound healer's controls off and set it into the medi-kit bag. "Goethe was never the out and out Gung Ho Gun the rest were," he stated. "Like I said, he considered Legato his brother, but in reality, he still kept mostly to himself. But from what I always felt about him… he was always the most… passionate."

Kinza stared at Knives. "Passionate? A Gung Ho Gun?"

Knives scratched his cheek. "I seem to remember at least twice punishing him for not killing his target," he casually noted.

Kinza seemed even more confused by this. "Punished? I thought the Gung Ho Guns either killed themselves or were killed by others if they failed to fulfill their missions."

Knives shrugged. "Goethe was a special case. Legato would never have been as good as he was if I had killed him."

Miami shook her head and returned to the passenger cabin. "You disgust me sir," she thought to herself.

"I can't say that the feeling is mutual," Knives called back to her. He then paused and smiled. "After all, this isn't a mutual admiration society you know, is it?" he finished in thought.

Miami stared back at him. He had broadcast that through the shield of the Doorknob. Knives was still very powerful.

"Your actions are doing yourself more harm than good," she projected at him.

"To the point that I disgust you?" he laughed in her mind. "Were you not the one not so long ago begging everyone to forgive Brilliance Dynamite Neon for raping you?"

Miami stamped her foot. "Not that you care, but as a Plant, he couldn't rape me if he had wanted to, unlike what you did back there in Olympia City," she thundered into his head.

He stared at her in a slight shock. "Meaning?"

"Meaning, I know what you did to Horloge." She turned on her heel and continued into the cabin.

"Care to share?" Kinza asked as Knives turned towards the front and contemplated the view. He sat silently.

"Guess not," Kinza coughed. "Computer, increase speed 2 units."

--------------------------------------

Sara looked at the com unit and grunted. "They're not at their assigned station."

Brandywine looked over her shoulder. "Who isn't?" she asked.

"Kinza's shuttle," the officer replied. "The last thing the recorder says is that they landed just outside the tunnel. After that, they seemed to have moved again. I would have expected them to wait for news from us." She brought up the tracking system to see if it could locate the wayward ship. "The satellite tracking system is down – probably from the explosion of the Second Moon."

Brandywine leaned over Sara's shoulder to scrutinize the monitor.

"YAAAA!" she screamed into her ear.

"YEOW!" Sara chorused. She spun about in her chair to see why the artist has chosen that time to pierce her eardrums with that sonic boom.

"Geeze ladies, hi already!" Bryant yelped. He seemed all mussed up, as if he had been sleeping in his clothes. He had silently entered the parlor and placed his hand on his lady's shoulder.

"BRYANT!" Brandywine bellowed. "What the hell are you doing here!?"

He rubbed his eyes and stepped back a little. "I was sleeping in my cabin, why? When did you get back honey?"

A quite visible sweat droplet ran down Brandywine's face. "You have got to be kidding," she mumbled. "You SLEPT through all this?"

Bryant look confused. "All this? All what? What's going on? Where are we?"

"Not where you think you are lover-boy!" Brandywine sarcastically commented. She returned to the screen as Sara continued to clear her ears of the ringing. She quickly summarized to the drowsy sheriff what he had missed.

"The Second Moon? Gone?" he babbled.

"Like they were simply doing target practice," Brandywine said flatly. "We have to find D'two, and shut him down quickly."

"But first we have to find out why Kinza took off like that," Sara noted. "He's too good an officer – he wouldn't have vanished like that without a reason, especially with what we were doing."

Bryant blinked at Sara. "Why… what were you doing?"

"The REASON," Brandywine began yelling again, "why WE are the ONLY ONES ON THIS SHIP was because we EVACUATED EVERYONE ELSE!"

"You know," he sheepishly said, "at this point, I'm not sure I want to know why."

"Excuse me," they then heard. They looked back behind them to find a tall woman with long golden blond hair that nearly touched her knees standing lopsided in the doorway to the rear. Though that was about all Bryant saw, as a hand quickly moved up to his face. Brandywine had covered his view of the naked woman.

"Is there any coffee on this thing?" she asked a bit weary.

"Montre!" Sara exclaimed. "What are you doing out of your regen unit?"

The woman made a 'tsk' sound and shook her head, making the hair that surrounded her wave like stalks of grain in a field. "Those things are so confining," she bubbled. "What I wouldn't do for a latté right now!"

Everyone blinked – save Bryant – he was just trying to get a view back.

"A what?" Sara whispered to Brandywine.

"A funky coffee," she answered. "GET SOME CLOTHES ON FIRST!" she then addressed towards Montre.

The woman looked at her confused. "Clothes? Horloge and I never wore clothes when we used to get out of our containment vessels back on Earth… It kept the boys guessing," she added with a wink.

Brandywine started to fume more. "You're NOT in Paris, you're NOT on Earth, this is NOT a SEEDS ship, and you're NOT going buck naked in front of my boyfriend!" She trundled Montre to a spare cabin to get her dressed.

"Don't forget a Doorknob!" Sara advised. "Last thing we need is D'two getting into her mind now!"

Bryant just stood perplexed. "What the hell was all that about?" he asked.

"It is long, confusing, and best told when the book comes out," North said as he entered the room.

"Did you let her out?" Sara asked with a bit of anger in her question. North held his hands up.

"Hey, hey!" he shielded. "I was in the little boy's room. When I came out, the regen unit was empty and Lexington was blushing."

Sara stared. "He was blushing?" she asked with a quiver. "How could you tell?"

North looked over his glasses at her. "Trust me, he had his yellow haze down and he was still plastered to the glass when I came out." He pulled out a small device that popped open. He then reached into his shirt pocket and pulled a small disk out.

"What is that?" Sara asked.

North spun it in his fingers. "This will tell us how she got out. This is a scanning disk – interesting metal these things are made of – they record everything around them for 200 yards without the need of a camera." He slipped the disk into the top of the device. "They're self refreshing, and can hold years of material on them."

An image appeared on the small screen on the reader. It showed the regen unit with Montre still in it. A press of a few buttons on the controller brought up readouts of energy levels and statistics. Suddenly the numbers shot up.

"Huh," North commented. "Simple teleportation," he noted as Montre appeared outside the unit. She turned towards the larger vessel beside the regen unit and placed her hand on it.

"Thank you daddy-o!" she purred as she caressed the glass and placed a kiss on it. She then walked out of the engine room, her long hair flowing behind her. Lexington could be seen appearing through the haze looking around.

North reversed the play on the device and took it back to just before Montre teleported. Negative and positive numbers popped up on a freeze frame. North nodded and shut the device off.

"Interesting," he said. "She drew on the reserves that Lexington had built up for her recovery to surge herself out of the chamber."

"Is that what Miami did as well?" Sara asked. "No, she requested to be removed from her regen unit…"

"Remember what Montre said," North reminded her. "She and Horloge both would leave their units back on Earth on a regular basis. I would keep an eye on her. She seems to be a bit of a wild one."

"Great," Sara said. "Just what we needed, another troublemaker."

North laughed. "In the meantime, I think it would be for the best if we got moving. Things are afoot after all. I don't think we want to be left out of all this now do we?"

"Okay, but which way?" Sara asked waving at the console. She was surprised as North stepped up to the unit and inserted a plug from a scanning rod he had pulled from his pocket. A few taps across the keys and the screen before her lit up with a highly detailed map with all the hot spots highlighted.

"What is this?" she pondered amazed at the data that was displayed.

North cleared his throat. "This is the Observer's net. It never goes down." He pointed at a moving set of lights about 50 iles west of their position. "This is the shuttle, and whatever they're chasing. But I would head towards here." He pointed at a small enclave that the shuttle was heading for.

"China Grove?" Sara read the readout. "It looks like there were two ships that crashed there…"

"And most likely, the home of our man D'two," North added.

Sara looked up from her seat at the man who was leaning over the console. "Are you sure you're suppose to be telling me all this? After all, aren't you an Observer?"

"Shhhh!" North said as he mimicked pulling a zipper across his mouth. He keyed a few more switches. The map now showed all the locations of the tunnels.

"No direct route there," he mumbled. "I suggest the direct approach." He drew his finger across the screen which was followed by a highlighted line. At one point the line switched from yellow to red.

"Why is it red here?" Sara asked.

North stood upright. "That is where the Steamer hits the surface and takes Highway I10 west. There shouldn't be anyone on it, and on the surface, and on a smooth street, this machine can blister the road!"

--------------------------------------

The car slid to a stop outside the doctor's office in Tulip. Horloge stepped out, pike in hand. The actual time it had taken her to drive from Olympia City to there had been twelve hours, though to the rest of the world it had been only a few seconds, such was her power over time.

But a few seconds still had passed, and this was a worry to her. Time should not have moved at all. She looked at her belly – even now, the rapid growth of the child was evident. She cursed and spat.

She looked about the still town. Why were people everywhere? With all the disasters and havoc being wrought about, why were these statues all out in the street? Obviously, what with time closed down around her, these were actually the town-folks doing whatever they had been doing before being influenced by the pike she held in her hand. But why were they not at home huddled under their respective beds waiting the end of Dooms Day?

And they all seemed to be looking at her – and her belly – and that demon larvae growing within.

She spat again and stormed into the office.

"Chicago! CHICAGO!" she bellowed over the frozen nurse.

A chubby man stepped out of the back examination room and looked at the sequined woman at his front desk. "Horloge, I told you not to call me by that name… Archimedes is my name, not Dr. Chicago."

She grabbed him by the lapels and held him close to her nose. She grin an angry smirk.

"I have a job for you!" she hissed.

The man smacked her fingers and bid her into his office after she let him go. He looked back at his still nurse. "No visitors Miss Bundy," he told her. It took a moment for him to realize her condition. "Oh, yes… naturally…" he mumbled.

He entered his office and found Horloge pacing back and forth along the far wall. He sat down behind his desk and folded his hands over his belly.

"Well Horloge, you're looking… well…" he said. She snapped a glare at him. He cleared his throat. "Personally, I thought you would more likely show up with a bullet in you, not a baby."

She looked down at her belly. Was it that visible yet? Then she remembered, the doctor was a Plant after all. He could sense the baby.

"I want it out!" she snarled. "I want it removed, I want it terminated, I want it GONE!"

Archimedes placed his thumbs on either side of his chin and looked at his patient over his oval glassed. "You want an abortion? Are you sure? What does Sandusky have to say about this?"

Horloge seemed to lose her strength in her knees when he asked about Sandusky. She made it to a chair and plopped down in it. "It's… it's not Sandusky's child."

The doctor sat back and switched to looking at her from under his glasses. "Really?"

She slammed a fist down on the arm of the chair with tears streaming down her face. "I was raped!" she yelled. "Now I'm carrying his child!"

Archimedes nodded understandingly. "Ah…" he said. "Very well then. Follow me then." He stood up and opened the door to the back examination room.

Horloge looked at the open door and sighed. She rubbed her hand over the swelling she was having already – damn these gestation periods of Plants… She remembered when she had stopped time aboard the SEEDS Alpha ship and helped D'two implant the number two Plant – the children that became Vash and Knives grew at an amazing rate.

"Damn the Source!" she griped to herself. She slowly stood up and followed the doctor into the back.

"What are you doing here?"

She looked about. There was no room, only a yellow haze. She gasped for air, smelling an aroma of almonds which was filling her lungs.

"What are you doing here?" was asked again. "Mother, answer me."

Horloge stepped about in confusion. She knew that smell – it was the same every ten years or so – the same obnoxious odor that she endured each time she would rejuvenate herself within a Plant's containment vessel. But she could not see the outer glass wall, nor could she see the filament mount. She was standing on something solid, but she wasn't sure. It felt a bit bouncy.

"MOTHER!"

Horloge looked up. A pair of youthful blue eyes were looking down on her.

"Mother, are you trying to kill me?" the infant asked. "If you are, let me tell you, you may find it hard to do."

Horloge grabbed her hair and screamed. It was then that she realized that she was without her pike. She fell to her knees and cried.

Footsteps caught her ears. They were heavy heel to toe steps, slowly approaching her. They stopped in front of her, scraping the ground with a course grinding sound. She looked up to find a pair of boots. She coughed - the smell of this strange room was starting to overwhelm her.

"Horloge," the owner of the boots said to her. "Horloge, welcome our new master. Welcome our new master and die!"

She looked up. It was Janus – Janus the Mad! Janus the Insane! Janus the two face! She gasped as he reached down and placed his open palm under her full chin and lifted her to her feet, keeping her head upright. He flung his free hand back and pointed at the baby's face behind him.

"PRAY TO YOUR NEW LEADER!" he shouted in her face. "PRAY THAT HE TAKES YOUR LIFE WITH LESS PAIN AS YOU INTENDED TO INFLICT ON HIM!"

"Oh god!" she whispered. "By the Source! Help me! Help me please!"

"Your god is here," the baby said. "I can be a forgiving god, if you would like. But my first commandment would likely to be to smite down those who would harm me, Mother…"

She gasped. "Your… your voice! Your voice! Knives! KNIVES!"

The baby laughed. Janus laughed. The universe laughed.

The world turned black for Horloge.

She awoke to an awful smell that felt like it was being held under her face. She snapped her head back from the nose burning aroma of an ammonia capsule being administered by Dr. Archimedes.

"You must be anemic," he said. "You fell right back into your chair as you tried to stand up."

Horloge pushed him away and jumped to her feet. She stumbled into the waiting room.

"May I help you miss?" the nurse asked. "When did you arrive?"

Horloge ignored her as she continued out the front door to streets teeming with the town's people. She could swear they were all staring at her again, only this time they were moving. She climbed into her car and tore out into the desert.

Archimedes came out of his office with the pike in his hand and watched the dust fly through his front door.

"Doctor, who was that?" the nurse asked.

"That is one troubled lady," he said as he tapped the staff in his hand. He shrugged and looked at the little girl in the nurse's seat.

"I wanna ride da thomas!" she squeaked.

"Oops," he said as he fumbled with the time controlling pike.

--------------------------------------

The body bag with Sanders slid into the aft compartment of the ALC with a thud. The Corporal slammed the door shut.

Edmonton winced at the sound. Even though she wasn't a raw recruit, and the possibility of death had been drilled into her mind since the start of boot camp, still, this had been the first time she had seen someone die beside her – in her arms – covered in his blood… She clutched her elbows and shivered.

Harrisburg stepped out of the landing craft and looked at his men. Four of them were holding a line around the shuttle. Edmonton was leaning against the hull. The Corporal finished sealing the hatch and was coming around from the back of the shuttle.

"The body is secured, sir," he reported. "Orders?"

Harrisburg stared out at the town that had bitten him to the quick. He snorted.

"We're not finished here, ladies," he fumed. "Janus has just made seven new enemies."

"I'm shaking in my boots," the voice of the demon said. "What does the widdle soldier have for me?"

Edmonton kicked the hull with her boot.

"Temper – temper," he chided.

Harrisburg looked over at Edmonton. "You heard the man," he quietly said. "Stow that temper, Private."

She snapped a glare at the Sergeant. He winked at her.

"Huh?" She tried to fathom what he was referring to. He gestured for her to come closer.

"Issue the snares," he whispered to her.

She looked up at him with surprise. "Shields sir?" she quietly asked.

He shook his head. "No, the jackets will give our intensions away," he replied. "The snares are for the children with the guns."

She looked puzzled at him. "Sir?"

He sighed. "Look," he explained, "the snare breaks a Plantoid from the Source, right?"

She nodded with a bit of trepidation.

"But at long range, a Plant Snare can also be used as a launch-able Doorknob, which would break whatever mental hold they have on the kids. Got that?"

"Sir!" she replied with a bit more enthusiasm.

"Good," he smiled. "Now get your tail in there and break out the snares!"

"Yes sir!" she yelped and darted into the ship.

"Planning your next attack, Mr. Marine?" the voice of Janus cackled.

"Show your weak-ass tail out in the open, and we'll show you what we're planning!" he shouted.

"Oh, sticks and stones, Mr. Harrisburg!"

Edmonton exited the ship with an armload of guns and rounds and gathered the others around her while Harrisburg and the Corporal watched the town. She quickly explained the Sergeant's plan as she handed the out the arms.

"FALL IN!" Harrisburg barked suddenly. The group assembled before him. He held out his hand towards Edmonton. She tossed him a Plant Snare.

"Okay children, we've had our nose bloodied!" he yelled. "And now the bully resorts to taunting. Well boohoo! If he expects us to run home to our mommies, think again! We WILL show him just who the bully is here! WE ARE THE BULLIES!"

"SIR, YES SIR!" they replied.

"WHO ARE WE!?"

"WE ARE THE BULLIES, SIR!"

He nodded. "Charge 'em up – Phalanx position!" he ordered.

The Marines formed a half circle in front of Harrisburg and the Corporal. The Sergeant held up a scanning box and waved it about. He looked at its readouts, overlaying what the ship's own scanner and the probes he had launched earlier were giving him. The entrances he was looking for all seemed to be crowded with humans. And the weapon sensors said that the leads to these groups all had guns.

"Straight ahead," he told his troops. "Town hall. March!"

The group started a slow step down the main street. Edmonton was next to Harrisburg keeping an eye on the church where she had lost her partner. She was startled when she felt a finger touch her on the back of her neck.

"Listen, Cindy isn't it?" she heard the voice of the Sergeant in her mind. "I'm using direct communications so I don't broadcast this. I'm about to do something. Whatever happens, if I'm not here, I want you to take the men down the passage in the Town Hall, understand?"

"What? What are you about to do?" she asked in a near panic.

"I can't say – just be ready."

He removed his finger. She sweated as she heard him pull the reset on his snare. She felt a tapping on her shoulder. She looked to see the scanner being handed to her. She looked back at Harrisburg who gestured to her to keep her eyes on her area to watch. She returned to staring at the church.

Harrisburg glanced at the Corporal. He nodded.

He reached over and grabbed Harrisburg's Doorknob and gave it a twist to shut it off.

"There you are," the Sergeant grinned. He bolted out from behind the others followed by the Corporal. He ran up to the sheriff's office and planted his foot against the wooden door.

He found a swirling vortex behind the opening. He grinned and fired the first snare into the miasma. He could feel the pull of the round pulling on his own connection to the Source as the energy shield that he brought up wasn't to full power yet.

The whirlpool dispersed, but its creator was not behind it. Harrisburg could feel that he was still in the building… but…

…Upstairs! He keyed into his own pool of energy from the Source and brought it to bear on the outer wall of the building. The structure shook, then crumbled to the ground.

The Corporal looked back at the troops – they were staring in disbelief at what the Sergeant had just done.

"KEEP MOVING! YOU HAVE YOUR ORDERS!" he barked.

The Marines continued on their maneuvers. He returned to the task at hand. Janus was climbing out of the rubble, showing no signs of injury.

"I see you've finally realized what an inhibition that device is," the clone said to Harrisburg. "But that shield isn't helping things either, is it?"

"The Doorknob is to keep scum like you out of our heads," Harrisburg snarls as he tossed a few boards aside. "But I'm a bit beyond any 'inhibition' as you put it."

He fired off the snare again – two of the four rounds done – and this one wrapped around a plank that leapt up in front of it. Janus felt the field though. He clutched his chest and dropped to one knee. He looked over to see the Corporal readying his unit. He glared and snapped his fingers at him. A black swirling spot opened behind him.

"DAMN!" the Corporal yelled as he felt himself begin to be pulled in. His energy shield shattered and his legs were distorted as he fell to the ground in a twisted shape caused by the warp field. He fired his snare at his target before the dark energy swallowed him up. The round deployed over Janus' head, but he dove to his right as the net field dropped where he had been.

"Get thee gone, usurper!" Janus cursed as the Corporal was twisted and stretched in an inhuman way by the warp field. The black essence enveloped him, slowly crawling up towards his head. "Your human filth is best turned inside out."

"I am not human," the Corporal angrily yelled. "I am a Plant!"

"Really," Janus blandly said as he stood up and dusted himself off. "Congratulations – that device of yours works – I could not tell. Well then, say hello to that woman up in The Source!"

With that, the black void slurped up the Corporal then vanished.

Harrisburg gritted his teeth and held out his palm. A bolt of energy caressed over his fingers as he considered what to do with his rage.

He then simply tossed it at Janus who deflected it over a shield he generated.

"Now you seem to have quite a bit of penned up anger," Janus smirked. "You're certainly not like Vash. He channels even his hate into attempts of peaceful coexistence – a fool's errand to say the least. But you are different, yes you are. You are not willing to take loss, are you? You fight and flail at me almost blindly."

"Dog!" Harrisburg snarled. "You killed my Dia! Now I shall kill you!" He fired off the third round of his snare. Janus vanished then reappeared to the right of where the net deployed.

"Ah yes, the lovely lady you were talking to when I blew up the Second Moon," he grinned with a disturbingly wicked smile. "She was in the communications center, wasn't she? Then it was your transmission I used as a carrier of my beam, wasn't it?"

Harrisburg stopped and stared wide eyed at Janus, his jaw slack in disbelief. "What?" he asked.

"You helped me out a great deal, Mr. Marine," he continued. He crossed his arms and flung them wide sending shards of energy at Harrisburg. "I must send you my gratitude!"

The troops continued on even as the ground they were walking on bounced from the impact of whatever was going on behind them. "Keep going, don't look back," Edmonton repeated to herself. "Dawn, keep to the front and have your snare ready," she added.

Gordon looked over at Edmonton. "Why me?" she asked.

The Private kept her eyes locked on her area of concern. "Well, not to sound insensitive, but you're human. The snare won't do anything to you."

Dawn looked at her unit. "Then you guys had better be ready to toss your guns to me when the time comes – these thing only hold four rounds remember."

Cindy nodded in agreement. "You heard the lady, gentlemen. Don't waste your shots either, hear?"

"Got it chief," Bridgeport said. Edmonton looked back at him. Suddenly she was leader… damn!

"Movement to the right!" Johnstown reported. In unison they all made a slight adjustment to their stances to face the possible trouble point.

"Movement to the left!" AC countered.

"COMPANY HALT!" Edmonton shouted. "Okay now… just breathe… collect yourselves… remember our objective here. We're heading for the town hall…"

Just then the ground was jarred by another jolt, and the area down by the sheriff office was starting to show signs of a fire. She watched as fragments of building bounded out into the street.

"The Sergeant and Corporal are using an awful lot of energy down there," she said to herself. She shook her head to loosen the marbles that had accumulated in her mind just then.

"Okay, let's pick up the pace," she ordered drawing on her reserves. "We'll hit them hard, and we'll hit them fast, got that?"

"YES, MA'AM!" they barked then started to trot towards their target.

Rem opened her eyes slightly. N'ya was the first thing she saw.

"Are you okay kitty?" she asked weakly. "You look like you have a hangover…"

"Nyawww," he grumbled as stars spun about his universe. "Sniffing new buds," he moaned.

She laughed. "Silly kitty…" she said and ran her hand over his short furry coat.

"Rem!" Vash exclaimed. "Are you going to be okay?"

N'ya rubbed his head against her arm as he moved in to check her wound. He sniffed then stepped back.

"I'm afraid not," he said. He scampered over to the tree and looked at the matching wound. "Oh my oh my, this is bad!"

Vash didn't know which way to look – at Rem or what the Kuroneko was looking at. He finally came to the tree and saw the gash seeping a crimson liquid. He touched it and noticed that Rem squirmed with a slight pain to her side. He looked at his red fingers and rubbed them together. It was the unmistakable feel of blood. He stepped over to Rem's side and looked at her wound and found a golden liquid oozing from it. He touched a little of it that had pooled on the slab. It was sticky.

"Sap? Rem, you're bleeding sap?" he asked her.

Rem looked at Vash with a pained puzzled look. She felt down for the wound and gingerly touched the gash. She looked at her fingers.

"Does this mean I'm truly a Plant?" she asked.

"That can't be it," Wolfwood said. "Broom-head here gets cut and shot all the time. It's always been red!"

"N'ya, what is it?" Vash asked.

The cat looked concerned, even scared. "This is bad. I must get Myuki here quickly. She is loosing her connection to this plane of existence!"

"Is there anything we can do for her?" Wolfwood asked a bit harried. "Use healing powers or something?"

The cat looked at him with crossed eyes. "Where do you think you are? An Anime? Next yer gonna want ta put on fukus! Actually, you're part of the problem."

Vash looked at his new arm and Wolfwood just looked away knowing what the Kuroneko meant – they had been healed by the power of Rem's tree. Now her own wound and that of the tree's was drawing on each other.

"What is it going to do to The Source?" Vash asked.

"You really are a broom-head, aren't ya?" N'ya commented. "Nothing – the tree is simply a manifestation of Rem's soul. The children of Angel Five use it as a meeting place – a communications tool. They'll miss it, but that's it. I must hurry. Watch her!" The cat turned and vanished.

Vash turned back and saw that Rem was attempting to sit up. He rushed over to her side and cradled her in his lap.

"This is crazy," he whispered to her as he gently rocked back and forth. "I finally find you again, and this happens."

She reached down and took his hand. She smiled at him and touched his face.

"You've grown tall and hansom Vash," she said. "Meryl is a very lucky woman."

Vash sat up. "Meryl? You know about Meryl?"

She giggled a pained laugh. "Vash, silly, I've watched you grow – I've seen your pains – I cried when I watched them torment you… But you always were true to yourself. Vash, I'm very proud of you."

Vash held Rem close, not wanting to let her go – not wanting to let the ebbing life in his arm vanish. She smiled and ran her fingers through his hair.

"Just like Alex's…" she said.

Vash smiled through his tears. He was about to say something when he was interrupted by a shrieking sound that made Wolfwood cover his ears. Vash wasn't as lucky as he bore the brunt of the sound. He opened his eye and looked to their left. A small black hole in the vast yellow haze was appearing. A pile of something flopped out both splattering and clattering to the ground below the orifice. The black spot them vanished with a piercing squeak.

"Oh god, not again," Rem said.

"Again?" Wolfwood beat Vash in asking. "That happened before?"

Rem nodded. "Once… a human was dropped here through one of those portals once before… by Knives…"

"Knives dropped a dead body on you?" Vash asked with anger in his tone.

Rem shook her head. "Not intentionally, I'm sure. It was just before you went to stop him – he sent a man into The Source. The Source deposited him here. He looked as if he had been a chaplain, though he wore the strangest of glasses.

Wolfwood stood still, his face a pale white. He noticed that Vash was staring at him and he swallowed.

"Where… where is this man?" he asked.

Rem looked up at him and saw his face. "Um… under the slab. It was the only place I could bury him.

Wolfwood looked under his feet. He suddenly felt as if Chapel was reaching up through the stone to grab his ankles. He stepped off to one side staring.

"Why? Why did he do that? Why did Knives send him here?" he asked.

Rem sighed. "He confronted, what was his name… Legato, that's it… He confronted Legato about forcing him to kill you," she answered. "I feel that even though he was one of these Gung Ho Guns, he had strong feelings for you – like a father…"

"Father…" Wolfwood glared at the stone. "Damn crappy father…"

Rem dropped her head against Vash's chest. "He still cared… I'm sure of it."

Wolfwood snorted and looked at her. "Now I see where bristle-brain picked up his outlook on life. You can see the good in anybody, can't you?"

Rem smiled. "Everyone's soul has some good in it. It just needs to be found and nurtured."

"Uhh…"

Wolfwood and Vash looked over at the body that had fallen to the ground. A hand was moving.

"Crap, he's still alive!" the preacher yelped as he ran over to the man. He found fatigues and weapons on the body. "Man, he looks like every bone is broken."

"Sarge… Gotta help the Sarge…" the man slurred.

"OH!" Rem shouted. "OH!" This time it was a cry of pain.

Wolfwood looked back at the body and examined a patch on the man's shoulder.

"Vash, we have a problem!" he yelled.

The Typhoon looked at Wolfwood as he attempted to sooth Rem's pains. "What is it Nick?" he called back.

"This guy's got a uniform on," Wolfwood relayed. "There's a patch on his shoulder that says Venus! He's a Marine!"

Vash held his breath. "He's a Plant! The tree's trying to heal him!"

--------------------------------------

Kinza looked about the cabin. Knives had left for the rear, so it was up to him to apply the pressure bandage he was struggling to get over his still raw arms. He grumbled to himself and watched the readouts. Goethe was still matching his speed, so he had backed off a bit, seeing that even with a shield up, if he tripped or even twisted oddly, he could injure his captive.

With Goethe locked on with his scanners, Kinza had lifted the shuttle higher. The obvious target of the runner was a small town ahead with two crashed ships as its backdrop. His scanners also told him that a Marine ALC was there.

"I'll be damned… the Marines have landed," he said to himself. "Huh?"

The scanner had chirped and replaced the close image to a wide view of the area. His ship and his quarry were heading in from the west – a single car was coming in from the northwest – and a fleet of vehicles was coming in from the south.

"What the hell… Sand Ratz? Damn!" he cursed as he gingerly tapped on the communications console. "Group Angel Wings – Group Angel Wings, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

The radio crackled. "We're answering an assistance request," a bounced voice responded. "Who is this?"

"Elb Kinza, in the shuttle to your northwest. Is that you Lieutenant Yerkies?"

"Roger that," the reply said.

Kinza looked at his arms and continued wrapping. "Wasn't your cadets removed from the surface?" he asked the Lieutenant.

"Our ship never arrived from the Nelson," he yelled over the roar of the dune buggy's motor. "We got a call for assistance from a Marine contingent up ahead after we got our radio back. What the hell happened? We've been blacked out since the moon blew up."

Kinza sighed as he switched to a thinner bandage for his fingers. "The Nelson didn't make it… D'two shot her down along with the moon. Did you bring all your cadets?"

There was a moment of silence. "No," Yerkies finally said. "The preemies are still at July Base. I have only the upperclassmen with me. We're fully armed and geared, and we all have our Doorknobs on, sir."

Kinza examined the group - Fifteen vehicles in all.

"Yerkies, turn to your east slightly and spread out a bit. Come in along the southeast edge. I think we're heading in on D'two's base and we need a flanking maneuver along the backside of the wrecked ships. There's a set of scanning drones aloft over the town so use them to get your bearings – got that?"

"Roger that," the Lieutenant said. Kinza watched the formation of vehicles on his screen turn east as they readjusted their approach.

Knives sat in the main cabin, his hands to his face, contemplating his lawyer as he conducted himself before the judges. Photon sat across from him burning holes in his body with her stare. Miami sat beside the last justice doing the same from that side of the room.

"Your honors," Boston stated as he tried his best to maintain his footing, "it surely has become evident that all charges dealing with my client should be summarily dropped in lieu of the events that have happened in the last twelve hours. It has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the enticement and illicit coercion caused by the mental control that Delta Two had over my client was the route cause of what my client is being accused of. It is wrong to lay blame on that of someone who was being used merely as a puppet."

"That may be so," the chief justice said, "but we still must hear from the witnesses."

Boston shook his head. "But the witnesses only saw him when he was under Delta Two's control. How would they know what he was like without that control?"

"Is the observer allowed to enter any further reports to us?" the justice furthest in the line asked. "It would seem they can see history much better than the witnesses can, including any influences…"

"Only by unanimous consent," the third justice replied, "and I for one am not about to relieve myself of my own judgment simply because we can just ask someone to give us the answer to our questions outright. We were born and raised to be judges, not puppets to be pulled along by our strings."

Knives smiled at that comment.

"Besides, the observer is not here," the chief justice noted, "hence it is a moot question. We shall decide on our own. But the council does have a point. If needed, we do have the witness Rem Saverem, who knew the defendant clear back to the day he and his brother were born."

"But even then," Boston continued, "how much influence was there between my client and Delta Two? It has been noted into record by the observer's record that their conception was by Delta Two's own design. Clearly, this shows that his influence over my client goes clear back to his birth."

"All this is true, Mr. Boston," the small old woman said. "This is why this trial is unique that it has no direct prosecutor, but only the cold hard facts presented to us by the observers and their history files."

"What if there is new evidence to be added that the observers had not covered?" Miami asked. Knives glanced at her with a cold hard stare.

The judge next to her rubbed the back of his neck. "It would only be added to our deliberations if it was from the time period this trial is about – the time between his first known acts of malice to the final battle on the mesa a year and a half ago. Anything after that would be up to another trial, not this one."

Knives smirked. Photon scowled. Miami never stopped staring at him.

Suddenly the shuttle shuddered, and everyone felt their stomachs jump into their throats. They were dropping rapidly. Millie and Dallas headed forwards to the pilot's house.

"What's going on?" he asked as he kept the Insurance Girl from falling into the spare seat.

Kinza was now using the hand controls now that he had managed to wrap his arms in the pressure bandages. He was looking down at his readouts then out the forward window.

"Goethe just vanished down a hole," he grumbled. "This blasted town is like a mole city! There are tunnels all over the place…"

"M-more worms?" Millie whined.

Kinza smiled and leaned back at her. "Nothing new dear," he sarcastically chided her. "But there does seem to be quite a lot of activity down there… whoa!"

A sensor alarm sounded. The map showing all those heading towards town grew to now include a large red vehicle that had burst from the ground at amazing speeds just west of their location. It was now rolling up the main road heading into the enclave.

"Steamer ahoy!" Kinza yelled. "What are they doing?"

The Tunnel Steamer thundered down the Highway I10 until it cleared the hot geyser swamps outside China Grove. It then left the road and started a swing to the southeast.

"Okay ladies," North yelled from the control seat, "I'm extending the coring tube. I'll insert her into the second ship's hull a few meters to the side of the main intersection between units in there – that seems to lead to the main base."

Sara and Brandywine were giving final checks to their armor and weapons. Bryant was still attempting to at least have the flack jacket on that was part of the SEEDS Security Force uniform. Brandywine watched his attempt and nearly burst out laughing.

"HONEY! Honey… here, let me show you…" she giggled releasing the air chamber that held the jacket tight and was making his attempt so pathetic. She had tried to get him to stay behind, but he had refused.

"I'm a sheriff, BW! I'm not staying behind as my girl runs into that hell-hole!" he had said.

She zipped up the sides and told him to hold his breath. When she set the jacket to extract the air to make it form-fit his body he nearly turned blue.

"Breathe silly," she laughed. She touched his face and kissed him.

Sara looked up at the pilot's seat above them. "What's our ETA?"

North looked at the readouts on the controls and the approaching ship's hull. "I'd say about 10 minutes," he told her.

She nodded. "I'll be right back," she said, and headed back towards the rear.

"Don't be long!" North yelled back. He knew where she was going. He laughed to himself. "If Shadsie were here, I'd probably be doing the same," he told himself.

Sara looked up at the power plant at the rear of the vessel. The yellow haze cleared and Lexington appeared. He smiled and placed his hand on the glass wall that separated them. She rushed over and did the same on the other side and felt the warmth being generated by his body. A tear ran down her face and splattered on her shoe.

"Thank you," she told him. "You came to my rescue when I needed you… You're… important to me… please be safe… I want to find you after this."

"As I told you before, it seemed that this was to be," Lexington told her through the glass. "When I first saw you in Demitrihi when your mind called out for help, I knew you and I were meant to be together… you be safe as well. I will find you after this, one way or the other. Even if I have to go to The Source…"

She stepped back. "Even if I have to go to The Source…" she repeated. "I love you Lex… I'll return. Please wait for me." She turned and ran back to the front of the Steamer.

Montre watched her dash by. She stepped into the engine room and looked at the Micro Plant.

"She's just a child you know," she told Lexington. "Even I can tell that, and I've only known her for a few hours."

Lexington looked down on the woman. She was wearing the same armor that Sara had been only she was a bit more pronounced in some areas than Sara had been. Lexington shook his head and returned the gassy haze to his view.

"You would not understand," he told her with much difficulty. "I can speak to her directly without worry. She is warm and easy to be with – something that has been missing in my life."

"And what am I big boy?" Montre coyly asked as she tapped on the glass bulb.

"Cold," was all she heard in her mind. As she began to fume he added, "Besides, I can sense that you have a loyalty to someone else."

She stepped back and laughed. "I'm sure I have. I have no idea where it came from, but I guess I do." She added a slight giggle as she sensed another presence. "Well, my ride has arrived. Thanks for the jumpstart, Pops."

Lexington peeked through the haze again, an expression of sorrow on his face. "You're welcome dear. I know I can't stop you from going. Just be safe, you hear?"

Montre looked up at his face with a bit of shock. "You… you know who I am then?"

"Do you know who I am?" he asked. Montre looked at him closer. She shook her head no.

Lexington nodded. "It took me awhile to figure it out as well… Horloge certainly didn't help out when she tried to kill us… But as I remember, the US and French governments weren't exactly on the best of terms after the Plant donations were completed. I do know one thing… You have your mother's eyes and nose."

Montre stared. "You're… you're Delta Twelve?" with a bit of nervousness. "You're my father?"

Lexington crossed his arms and ruffled the feathery wings on his back. "She had an incredible pair of blue-green eyes, just like yours," he commented.

Montre stood still and blushed. "And Horloge has her hair and build," she finished. "Why aren't you with mother? What happened to her?"

Lexington sighed. "Back then, mating was not done for love, Montre," he explained. "We were government property. The technicians and scientists would regularly come and 'examine' us, taking samples away. It wasn't like we didn't know where they were taking them – we knew that the best, most powerful Plants came from the offspring created from the strongest of our kind. And they had found that the best came from what was thought to be the closest form of natural breeding for our kind – the implantation of energy spores from a male Plantoid to a female… I never actually met your mother when you two were conceived. It wasn't until just before the launch of the SEEDS missions that we did, and by that time you and your sister were on duty in France." He sighed again. "She never did forgive me for the forced pregnancy. She survived the landing on this rock, but she didn't want anything to do with me. She died about twenty years ago when a bandit gang wiped out her settlement she was living in with her then husband."

Montre looked down at her feet. "I would have liked to have met her," she said. "And what about my sister?"

Lexington grunted. "Like I said – she tried to kill us a few months ago. You would know her better than I would."

She turned about, her long hair wrapping around her waist as she did. She pulled out a red ribbon and tied it into a long ponytail. When she looked back at Lexington he was smiling lopsidedly. "What?" she asked.

"Your mother wore a ribbon just like that," he said.

Montre smiled then scowled. She removed her Doorknob and placed it on the table.

"See ya daddy."

She snapped her fingers. For a millisecond, time seemed to stop. When it resumed, Montre was gone. Lexington snorted and returned to his hazy world.

"I don't blame you child," he told himself. "You were created simply as an energy provider. But The Source help us, if the scientists only knew just how more powerful the offspring would be if the parents were human and child of Angel Five…"

"How about breeding a mix with another Plant?"

Lexington looked about. "Knives?" The voice had sounded like him. It was strong and close.

The lone car screamed across the desert leaving a wake of dust behind it. Horloge leaned heavily against the steering wheel.

Montre walked through the still barren wasteland towards the frozen car. She noticed a scattering of greenquail rushing away from the onrushing vehicle. She stepped up to her still sister and brushed some hair out of her face.

"You haven't changed much Horloge," she told her.

"She hasn't?"

Montre smiled and looked at the enlarged belly Horloge had. "Well, you're obviously a change, yes. I was talking about her face."

"Ah… yes. Well, I wasn't around back then."

Montre laughed. "Technically, you're not here yet either."

"Actually, I'm both."

She walked around to the passenger side and climbed into the vehicle. She belted in then tucked herself in anticipation of the quick acceleration she was about to go through. She clicked her finger.

She was pressed into the seat hard. Her long ponytail instantly cracked in the blast of wind that caught it.

Horloge screamed at the sudden appearance of her sister beside her. Montre grabbed the wheel and kept them stable.

"Eyes on the road, sister dear," she told her. "Mustn't hurt our new leader now should we?"

"I hate time breaks," North groused as he targeted the hull of the ship with the Steamer's coring tube, the last vestige of where the front of the machine had come from, a tunnel drill.

"What was that?" Sara asked.

"Nothing," North said. "Grab hold of something hard folks! We're about to hit!"

The tip of the core started to spin its auger bits. North hit the emergency breaks only a few yarz away from the ship, not wanting to crash the entire Steamer into the hull, just its nose. The rapidly spinning probe struck first sending a shower of metal body parts flying in all directions, one of which sliced through the window of the cockpit and lodged in the aft wall only a few feet away from North's head. He had not noticed as he was bent over from the sudden deceleration. Sara, Brandywine and Bryant had held to support beams as they rode out the crash.

North looked up at the shattered windscreen and whistled. There was then another crash to his left. He looked over to see the caboose thundering by. It had become disconnected from the rear of the Steamer and had smashed into the ship's hull on its own.

"Damn… That might block the way in!" North grumbled. "Everyone okay down there?" he called down.

"We're ready!" Sara announced.

"Okay," North replied. "I'm releasing the coring cap – there might be a blockage in the direction you wanted to go, so be ready."

"Any scanner readings?" Sara asked as she prepared to storm the base. She slung her gun-box over her shoulder, and inserted her father's Nightstick in its belt loop.

North shook his head. "Scanners are down. The readings prior to the strike were negative on anyone behind the wall we hit though. I can't say there won't be someone to greet you though, since we made a bit of a noise, so stand ready."

"Gotcha," Brandywine said as she cocked the standard issue SSF Gun she had been given.

North reached down for a pull-lanyard. "Okay, on the count of three… one – two – THREE!"

He pulled the cord releasing the still spinning boring tool, which dropped to the ground, skipped down the exposed hallway, bounced about and returned back from where it came, missing the entry plug and slamming into the aft section of the caboose, causing its aft door to crash to the ground, filling the area with panicked Thomases.

"I couldn't do that again in a million years," North said to himself as he unstrapped his seatbelts.

--------------------------------------

N'ya appeared from the haze. He saw Vash cradling Rem. She was coughing and becoming quite pale, even slightly transparent to his cat-eyes. He could see that the gunman was trying to transfer energy to her, but little was being taken in.

Wolfwood was over by the Marine. He was seeing if dragging him further away from the tree would slow the process and keep Rem from hurting so. But the energy The Source was sending the soldier was still coming.

Myuki stepped beside the Kuroneko and gasped. Vash looked up from his duty and saw her standing there in her kimono.

"Vash, honey," Rem weakly said through her pain, "that is your true mother."

Myuki looked over the situation. She rushed over to the tree and started to run her fingers over the gash, healing the wound in the bark stopping the flow of Rem's blood that was coming out of it. She then moved to Rem's side and started to do the same to her injury. The sticky sap melted away.

"M-mother?" Vash asked the woman. She looked up at him as she toiled and gave him a smile – a sad smile, but a smile of love nonetheless.

"It was a serious wound, Vash," she told him. "I'm not sure I can prevent the inevitable. I may have to release her – let her continue on as she should have long ago."

Vash first looked at her with a confused expression then it became a bit angered. "Release her? Then you're the reason why Rem is here?" He felt a hand touch his and he looked down.

"Its okay, Vash," Rem said. "I understand why she did it. She was trying to save me. She was trying to save you… and Knives… she was…"

Rem's hand fell to the stone.

"Rem! REM! REMMM!!" Vash shouted.

"N'ya," Myuki ordered. "Help her."

"I will my lady!" he exclaimed and jumped on Rem's chest. He curled up and stared at her face, his huge eyes shining in The Source's light.

"Truth be told," he said, "she does not have much time left. We must sever her ties to that tree."

Myuki considered what the cat said. "It is what is tapping her strength, but she will need it as well to transfer to the next level."

"The next level?" Vash asked. "Mother, what do you mean?"

She looked at the tree. "As she created this tree, she is the creation of this tree of communication as well. It was her tie to The Source that powered it. Our fellow children of Angel Five nurtured it and made it grow, making her its guardian. To send her on to her next level, we must break the link to this tree."

"But how without hurting her further?" Vash asked while tears streamed down his cheek.

Myuki looked over at Wolfwood. "There is a way… we need a full Plantoid to take her place."

Wolfwood looked at the woman and swallowed. "Lady, why are you looking at me?"

Vash looked between the two of them. "NO! Use me!" he yelled.

"You are not a true Child of Angel Five," Myuki said. "Your father was human."

Vash swallowed. "Yes, I know that… But I must try!"

"It won't work," the Kuroneko said. "The human part of your body would reject it… besides, The Source would then be flooded with the added energy of all the humans in the universe. You would bring the end… remember the Big Bang?"

Vash scratched his cheek with his new left hand. "Not really – I wasn't there… but wasn't that the creation of the universe theory?"

The cat nodded. "That would be a mere pop in comparison."

"Then what about you?" Wolfwood asked Myuki. Vash glared at him that he would ask his actual Mother to make such a sacrifice.

Myuki looked at the ground. "I am only here in spirit – remember I'm in a Plant right now."

Wolfwood looked at the soldier on the ground – no, he was a man of the cloth, he couldn't offer him either, especially since he was still recovering.

"Okay, what do I have to do?" he asked.

Myuki smiled. "This should be easy, especially since you're her great – great – great – great – err – great grandfather…"

Wolfwood grunted. "That joke is getting old… let's get on with this…"

Myuki pointed at the tree with a paper fan she pulled from her sleeve. "Simply touch the tree," she said.

Wolfwood trudged over to the spreading branches and looked up. "Am I going to have to prune this thing from now on?"

Myuki gave a slight laugh. "No – no… It will change to something more suitable towards you."

"Be warned," N'ya called, "the truth says to me that you may have too much energy for this – be ready to channel it."

Myuki looked down on the Kuroneko. "Too much? Ah yes… I nearly forgot about his Plantoid."

Wolfwood blinked. "Too much? Why should I have too much?"

"The pre Plant that holds your soul," Myuki said. "Remember? I told you before that a baby Plantoid has excessive built up energy in them."

"Peachy," Wolfwood said. "So what do I have to do now?"

"Simply place your hand on the tree," Myuki explained as she snapped the fan open.

Wolfwood looked at the paper fan. He suddenly felt as if he were looking down the muzzle of an Angel Arm cannon. He reluctantly placed his fingers against the rough bark of the tree.

Myuki drew a second fan from her other sleeve and snapped it open, holding the first one to her face and the other over her head. She whispered something obscure behind the first fan, spinning around in a dance that made her kimono fly about. She snapped her right fan down at the tree and at Wolfwood, slapping it shut as she did.

Wolfwood felt as if his hand had just become glued to the tree. He heard Rem gasp. He looked over at her and saw that she had opened her eyes wide and was taking large gulps of air as if she was having trouble breathing.

"MOTHER!" Vash yelled. "MOTHER, HELP HER!"

"That's what she's doing!" N'ya yelled back. "Trust your mother, Vash the Stampede!"

The tree began to grow and change shape. The bark started to smooth out, and a white smooth surface became evident. Wolfwood had to step back as the trunk seemed to expand away from him in all directions. He heard a tolling over his head and looked up. A bell was appearing over the fading branches as a rain of flowers from the tree scattered around them. The outer branches started to mesh together, turning black and taking on the form of a roof.

"It's… it's my confessional!" he exclaimed as he watched the bell be surrounded by a steeple. It rang louder as the building was completed with a front door and sign. Wolfwood's hand released the wall and he staggered back.

"Damn!" he said to himself. "That thing's bigger than I thought!"

"Forgiveness Chapel?"

He looked over at Vash and saw that the gunman was looking at the front of the building. The name was framed in a hymnal sign hanging by the front door. He smiled and laughed.

"It seems appropriate, doesn't it?" he laughed. "Want to try it out with a confession?"

Vash shook his head. "I'd have a hard time getting a coin into the slot," noting the still present groove in the top of the steeple.

Wolfwood gave a loud laugh. "How's my granddaughter?" he asked.

"Dead," a voice behind him said. He froze, never expecting to hear that voice ever again.

"Chapel… CHAPEL!" Wolfwood growled as he spun about. What he found shocked him.

His old mentor was standing there dressed in white, the odd red glasses missing from his face. He was still holding that stupid green apple though. He looked down and then looked back at his pupil.

"Please stop standing on me," he said.

Wolfwood looked down and saw that he was on the slab of stone that was once next to the tree. He nearly leapt into the air.

"Are you telling me that you made it to heaven?" Wolfwood snarled.

Chapel shrugged. "Almost… I'm on probation. My duty here is as a guide for her." He looked down at Vash and nodded. "She is almost ready."

Vash looked at Rem's still body. She was no longer gasping for air, her eyes wide and lifeless. He reached down and closed them.

"Rem… Rem…" he whispered.

"We must bury her first," Chapel explained. He gestured to the ground and a hole opened. "If you please, Mr. Vash?"

He wept as he stood with her limp body. He looked into the hole and then at the peaceful face of the woman in his arms.

Wolfwood felt a tap on his head as he watched. He looked back at his teacher while rubbing where he had been struck.

"Get in there and help him, rookie," Chapel said while polishing the apple.

Wolfwood climbed into the hole and held his arms out to his friend. Vash brought the body to his chest for one last hug to his surrogate mother then lowered her to the waiting hands of her grandfather.

Wolfwood looked at the woman he now held. "I may not have known you outright, Rem Saverem, but a father should never have to bury one of his own, even if she was his great – great – great – great – great grandchild. I'm proud of you child… You were a great teacher to Vash… I'm glad to call him my friend. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be the man I am now. Now it is time for you to rest."

He lowered her to the ground after kissing her on the forehead. He made the sign of the cross then looked up at Vash, who had a hand out to help him out of the hole.

Chapel nodded to the grave. It covered itself over.

Wolfwood looked at it and shook his head. "That's not enough," he said. He reached down and tapped on the slab. The stone split and rumbled across the ground. It formed a headstone with 'REM SAVEREM' inscribed in it. The other half of the slab raised itself into the air as well, the name 'CHAPEL THE EVERGREEN' blazoned on it showing the last resting place of the Gung-Ho Gun. The teacher nodded to the student. They then stood in quiet solitude.

"Geraniums," Vash said.

"What?" Wolfwood asked startled by the sudden single word that broke the silence.

"Her grave should be covered in geraniums. She loved geraniums."

Wolfwood looked at him a bit perplexed. "What the hell is a geranium?" he asked.

"Allow me," Myuki said at she waved her fan at the ground around her grave. The flowers covered its surface.

"Ah," Wolfwood said seeing the red color. "Is that where you got the red jacket from?"

Chapel cleared his throat. "If we may proceed?" he asked. The two men looked at him in confusion.

"Proceed?" Vash asked as he saw Chapel holding a ring up to him. "What is that?"

"I suggest we adjourn to the church?" he said pointing to the now open doors. "After all, Nicholas, you have a duty to perform."

They both looked at one another with perplexed expressions.

"Will you two get a move on?"

They looked back at where the Corporal had been. He was sitting upright now, cross legged and fuming.

"I want to get back to that fight we were in! Get whatever you have to do done with already!"

Vash stepped up to the chapel door. He then stepped back and looked at the building then back inside.

"Vash, what are you doing?" Wolfwood asked.

"Nick, there's something wrong with your church," Vash stammered. "It's bigger inside than outside!"

Wolfwood peeked in – Vash was right. The small chapel was huge inside, with massive stained glass windows that weren't on the outside. He looked down as he heard the cat snicker.

"Relative dimensions – you gotta love 'em!" he said.

"Nicely done, my boy," Chapel said. "This is fine."

"Fine for what?" Wolfwood asked then saw what Chapel was pointing at. Up at the altar was a couple. The woman wore a blazing white wedding gown with a long lace train and brilliant red bouquet of geraniums. The man was in a military dress uniform that neither had ever seen before. But as he removed his hat, the golden yellow spikes of hair told Vash just who he was.

"Alex Thatcher!" he exclaimed. He looked at the ring again – it was a wedding ring!

"A chapel should be blessed with a wedding, not a funeral," Rem said to the gathered. "The start of a new life is to be celebrated, and let the old life go."

"New life?" Wolfwood whispered. "Isn't she going to heaven?"

Chapel laughed. "Of course…"

"What new life?" he asked. "She's dead, isn't she?"

"What's you point?" Chapel bumped his shoulder. "Have you ever been there?" he asked while gesturing with the apple towards the ceiling.

Wolfwood looked at him. "What? Heaven? No…"

"Then don't assume what you don't know about." Chapel smirked. "They'll be fine. Just get up there and do your duty, Pastor Wolfwood."

Vash stood dumbfounded. "And me?" he asked.

Rem giggled. "Ring bearer of course silly – you're the best man!"

--------------------------------------

Harrisburg could see the smoke and dust that something had made on the other side of town, and whatever it was, it was a distraction for Janus as well. The demon was keeping and eye on whatever that had been that slammed into the ship.

"Sergeant," he said from atop a pile of broken posts and wall mountings, "let me show you just how foolish it was to turn off that device around your neck."

Harrisburg found himself drawing out the katana. He spun it about, bringing the blade around to face his belly. He slipped it against his flack jacket making a rattling sound as it played off the ring reinforcements behind the cloth outer garment. He saw a sneer roll over Janus' face that would have made anyone's skin crawl…

…But not his. He returned the grin, making Janus step back.

"That the best a second rate Plant can do?" Harrisburg grunted.

"Second rated!?" Janus snarled. "Now we fall to name calling?"

"I'm only here to show you the truth, son!" Harrisburg said with the same grit on his face.

"Then why are you the one with a blade against your stomach?" Janus noted. He gestured for the blade to insert itself.

It remained held fast on the outside of the jacket. He looked at the Marine and nodded.

"Impressive," he commented. "An enhanced Plantoid is stronger than I expected."

"Not just enhanced, creep," the soldier said without a sign of strain. "It is a FACT that children of a Plant and a Human have a deeper well of energy to dip from."

Janus laughed. "Really… Well, I may not have come from a mother and father that were human and Plant, but my genes came from a human and a Plant… So I should have a much deeper well… let's see…"

He held out his hands and lifted a series of large chunks of the sheriff's office and hurled them at Harrisburg.

The blade flashed and spun. A slash to his left split the post and beam being sent at him, a parry to the right divided the desk section, a spin and slice stopped a door in its tracks, and then a thrust struck Janus in the belly.

"Vash is already a Human–Plant mix," he whispered into the shocked face of Janus. "Adding another human actually reduced your powers!"

"Ah… I see…" Janus gurgled. "Do you feel better about this then?"

"I feel great," Harrisburg drummed into Janus by planting his boot into his chest to remove the blade, sending him falling back. But before he struck the ground, he vanished.

Harrisburg looked to his right. Goethe was holding the fallen Janus and another body. The jacket it wore told him just who it was.

"Goethe! Why are you carrying Miss Stryfe?" he yelled.

"I needed her as a guide for your friends," he said as he gestured to an approaching shuttle. "By the way – thank you."

Harrisburg slipped the katana back into the belt ring he was carrying it in. "Thank me? What for?" he rumbled.

Goethe looked at the limp body of Janus. "He wasn't truly my brother, but I could still feel him in there. He did not want to come back. He truly is now at peace." He gently placed Meryl on the ground. "You were correct as well."

"Correct?"

Goethe nodded as he looked back at the Marine. "Janus didn't have as much power in his mind as my true brother," he said as he pointed to his head. "There's too much Vash in there." He then vanished again with the body of Janus.

Kinza brought the shuttle in beside the Marine's ALC. He stepped out of the pilot's house to a surprise gathering in the rear cabin. He found that the judges were sequestered in the aft storage room.

"Was it something someone said?" he asked.

Miami shrugged. "They suddenly said that they needed to discuss the case and locked themselves in there," she said with a bit of confusion in her voice.

"When?" Kinza asked.

"Umm… about ten minutes ago," Dallas said looking at the chronograph on the wall.

Kinza looked back at the pilot's house and then back at the locked storage room. He pulled out his scanning rod and walked around the room.

"Odd," he said.

"What is?" Photon asked as she patiently waited for the judges to come out of their room.

He continued to read the scanner. "I dropped the shields about ten minutes ago when I figured out where our chase was heading."

"Meryl!"

Everyone looked over at Millie. She was looking out the hatchway's window. She slapped a release button and was out the door before anyone could stop her.

Goethe looked under the landing struts of the shuttle as he saw the Insurance Girl's feet running away towards her friend. They were followed by a large pair and then another smaller set. He returned to his job at hand – he placed his hand on the hull outside the shuttle and concentrated.

Knives and Kinza watched the trio of Millie, Miami and Dallas running over to the prone body in the street.

"I guess it's too late to warn them of the dangers of doing that," Kinza groused. He pulled his sidearm and winced as the bandages on his hands were pinching the still sore skin underneath. He flexed his fingers then reluctantly returned his gun to his side.

"Not going?" Knives asked.

Kinza snorted. "Only if I want to drop my gun at the feet of the enemy." He sighed.

The lock on the storage room clicked. Kinza and Knives looked back to see the judges coming out.

"We have come to a decision," the chief justice announced.

"Madam?" Boston and Photon asked with puzzlement.

"A decision?" Kinza asked. "What sort of decision?"

"We have made a verdict in the case," she said. She then smiled at Knives. "We find you, Millions Knives, not guilty."

Kinza scratched his ear. "Umm… pardon me, ma'am, but have we had a trial yet?"

The judge looked at him with a bit of sass. "Are you questioning our judgment, Mr. Kinza?"

He continued to scratch his ear. "If I said yes, would you hold it against me?"

"I can hold you in contempt!" she snapped.

Kinza half laughed. "Well, you can try, but there's no one here to arrest me in my own ship, unless Photon is going to do so."

"I must agree, your honor," Knives interjected. "This is most unexpected, to say the least. Can you explain your decision to us?"

The judge looked surprised at Knives. "Are you not pleased that we found you not guilty?" she asked.

"It is not that, your honor," he stated. "It's just that we have not heard from any of the witnesses yet, least of all, we haven't seen any of the normal proceedings yet. I haven't even seen anything of the prosecutor yet."

"As we stated before, the prosecution was the history reports provided by the observers," the second justice noted. "An actual prosecutor was not needed."

"It is quite obvious that you were under the control of this D'two person," the chief justice finally said. "We reserve the right to put him on trial when the time comes."

"You are free," the second judge said.

--------------------------------------

Sara and Brandywine held to a wall on one side of a corridor. Bryant clung to the other side. North stood guard at the opening to the Steamer. A simple enough plan.

The trio slowly made their way through the tangled wreckage that had been the aft section of the Steamer's caboose and a bulkhead of the crashed ship. The drill bit was still hot and steaming. The Thomases were still being a bit rambunctious down the hallway.

"So, are you going to follow your mother's plan?" Brandywine asked Sara.

Sara blew a little air. "I don't know," she said as she looked around a corner. "It requires something I'm not sure I can do."

She suddenly felt herself be yanked back against a wall. Brandywine was looking around her to make sure the coast was clear. She then looked her straight in the eyes.

"You mind telling me then? Last thing I need is an impromptu art show, if you know what I mean."

Sara sighed. "The way mother stopped him before was to envelop him in her energy."

Brandywine blinked. "You're kidding," she twanged. "You mean the little flittery light thingy?"

Sara nodded. "That's what she told me."

"BW, what's the hold up?" Bryant asked as he looked around for possible trouble.

"Just hold your Thomases, honey," she said. "We just have some issues to deal with first." She looked back at Sara. "Now are you sure that's what she said would stop him?"

Sara cocked her head. "Pretty much. She would 'punish' him."

A glimmer of realization flowed over Brandywine's face. "Oh, I get it – she'd use her powers to restrain him. Okay, no sweat, I can do that!"

Sara looked at her oddly. "You can do that? What do you mean?"

Brandywine shook her head. "What? You thought you'd be doing it? Oh no… you even attempt it, and your human side would explode, or something like that. No-no, I'll do it. I'll put an artistic flair to it, you'll see. I'll float like a butterfly and sting… oh crap…"

Sara looked at her perplexed. She had just been doing a silly little pirouette when she stopped and was staring down the hallway.

"COMPANY!" she shouted as she ran back up where they had come from. Sara peeked around and saw a group of children with pistols trudging her way.

"STOP!"

Sara saw that the children were in an intersection when someone had yelled.

"DROP YOUR WEAPONS!"

The yelling wasn't from the children. If anything, they were surprised as she was. They turned to face the someone who had ordered them.

"FIRE!"

Sara felt as if a wall had just dropped on her. Her knees buckled and the world swayed. As she felt the ground come up to her, she saw the children get swallowed up by a glowing net of energy. They also fell down, the guns clattering in the hallway. Then the world turned dark just as a uniformed person came around the corner.

"MAN DOWN! MAN DOWN!" was the last thing she heard.

A pungent downright nasty smell greeted her massive headache when the light returned. The blurry image of North over her slowly merged from the multitude of visions she was seeing.

"You're just going to have to stop using snares in here, private," he was barking at someone. More like thundering – oh, her throbbing temples!

"Yes sir, Captain sir!" a female voice said. Sara groggily looked to the side to see a Marine at attention beside them.

North saw the girl and looked at the ceiling. "Oh, at ease, private! You were doing as told, and doing the right thing. If anything, it was my own fault for not thinking that Harrisburg would do that in the first place."

Brandywine leaned over Sara and handed her some pills and a drink. "Best we can do at the moment," she said with a wry smile.

Sara got up on her elbows and took the pills and drink. The pills were easy, but she wasn't ready for the drink and sprayed North with some of it. It was bitter and a touch sour.

"Uhh, what is this stuff?" she asked now wide awake.

North wiped his face. "Orange juice," he said. "The vitamin C in it is good for the Plant in you. I bet you don't feel that headache anymore, do you?"

She blinked. As a matter of fact, the pain was gone. She shook her head.

"Good – have a donut," North advised her. "Plants also need their carbohydrates."

Bryant looked down on Sara and smiled. "So, what do we do now. We have this group of kids to deal with."

"Get them into the Steamer," North said. "And don't forget their Doorknobs! I'll keep an eye on them. As for the mission, it looks as if you now have a back-up team."

"Private Cindy Edmonton, at your service, officer!" the Marine saluted.

Sara held out her hand. "Sara Montgomery, SEEDS Security Force."

"Oh… oh my… By The Source… I shot…" Edmonton look as if she was about to join Sara on the ground. "Your mother…"

Sara smiled. "Yes, my mother is Cindy… THE Cindy… It's no big deal." She held out her hand to the private again.

"Cindy, right?" she asked with a grin.

"Er… yes ma'am!" Edmonton replied shaking her hand.

"Please, just Sara." She sprung up to her feet.

North looked up at her as he was still crouching down. "Are you sure you're ready to go?" he asked.

Sara winked at him. "Orange juice – cures what ails you!" She swigged down the rest of it, and made the most remarkable twisted face. "That's good stuff!" she gagged. "Let's get going."

--------------------------------------

The Corporal stood on one side of the happy couple, while Vash stood on the other. The Marine had been dragged into the church to act as witness to the proceedings. He looked totally confused.

"First I'm being twisted like a knot, now I'm at a wedding," he complained as Vash had led him into the chapel.

"Shh! They're starting!" the Typhoon had told him as he placed him on the one side.

"It is a sad thing for me to say that in all the years I was on Gunsmoke, I never officiated a wedding. On Earth with my wife, I did quite a few. And even here, I'm not sure if this is either here or there." Wolfwood cleared his throat. "Be it as it may be, I bow to the words of our beautiful bride – this chapel deserves to be blessed with a wedding, and not a funeral as its first act to God. So… before our holy father, I bring us together with these cherished words… Do you, Staff Sergeant Alexander Thomas Thatcher take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife – To have and to hold, from this day forward, till death do you part?"

The man stood at attention as if he were talking to his commanding General. "I do," he said with a stone face.

"This is my granddaughter, son, not a mission to storm the bad guys," Wolfwood chided bringing a big grin from Alex's face. "That's better… huh?"

Vash was blubbering away. Oy…

"Remembrance Saverem, do you take this man, to have and to hold, from this day forwards, till death do you part?"

It was not hard to see the blush running across Rem's face – she nearly matched the color of the geraniums. "I do," she said nearly in a whisper, a tear trickling down her cheek.

Wolfwood looked at Vash, who was now nearly a bubbling pool of water. "May we have the ring?" he asked with a grit in his teeth. Vash settled down and produced the golden band with his usual panache.

"Got it right here!" he chimed.

"Swell," Wolfwood grimaced. "Give it to Alex then."

Vash put the ring in Alex's palm and slapped him on the back, making him nearly drop it.

"Vash, behave," Myuki said.

"Yes mother…"

Wolfwood cleared his throat again. "Very well… Alex, if you would repeat after me… With this ring…"

"With this ring…"

"I do thee wed…"

"I do thee wed…"

Wolfwood looked at the proceedings and then started to count his fingers. "Isn't this supposed to be a two ring ceremony?" he asked.

Chapel patted his pockets. He suddenly looked down one and pulled out another ring. "Whoops! Sorry," he said as he placed it in Vash's hand. But something was distracting him. He barely noticed the ring as he handed it to Rem.

Wolfwood noticed this as well, but wasn't going to stop the proceedings.

"Rem… If you'd repeat after me… With this ring…"

"With this ring…"

"I thee wed…"

"I thee wed…"

He sighed. "I now pronounce you man and wife – you may kiss the bride."

"What is wrong with me?" Vash thought to himself. "I should be overjoyed… but… but something is wrong… something is wrong back on Gunsmoke!"

"Go Vash."

He looked back. Rem was looking at him from the arms of Alex Thatcher. She smiled and nodded.

"I understand," she said. "Go, return to where you're needed. Find Meryl. Keep her safe."

Vash looked dumbfounded at her. "Rem… thank you Rem. Thank you for everything." He kissed her and shook the lucky man's hand and started running for the door.

"Goodbye Vash!" Rem called out to him. "Take care of Knives!"

Vash stopped in his tracks and looked back at her.

"Knives… That's it! KNIVES! I HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF KNIVES!"

"Hey! Wait for me!" the Corporal yelled as Wolfwood was trying to get him to sign the license under the witness line.

"No time! Send him down after me! I have to take care of Knives!" Vash ran out of the church. He looked back for a moment. He saw the two graves. He reached down and took his no longer needed arm gun and placed it next to Rem's marker. He then drew on his powers and sprouted his wings. He then launched himself into the sky and towards the void below.

N'ya sat beside the pulpit licking a paw. "This is the pits," he was complaining.

"What for?" Myuki asked.

"How am I suppose ta sniff the buds anymore?" he quipped. "Der isn't any tree no more! What's da Plantoids gonna communicate with now?"

Myuki drew her hand over their heads. "The glass, N'ya… the glass!"

The Kuroneko blinked. "The stained glass is what was da leaves?"

"Correct."

The cat snorted. "You can't eat glass, and it don't smell well either!"

"Live with it cat," Wolfwood said. "I can't even smoke in here!"

The cat laughed. "At least you don't got dose silly wings anymore!"

Wolfwood hadn't even noticed. "Now how am I supposed to get to the trial like this?" he wondered aloud.

Myuki shook her head. "I'm not sure. I feel the same as Vash – there's something not right down there. There's something just not right."

oOo

**Next Episode**

_**In conclusion, let me just say**_

_**that I'm being followed by a Moon Shadow**_

_**Moon Shadow, Moon Shadow...**_

_**And I Think it's Gonna Be a Long, Long Time...**_

_**All good things come to an end**_

_**A finale**_

_**Closure**_

_**An end of a line**_

_**Sound Life**_

_**Next Episode of TRIGUN: MOON CHILD - The Finale -**_

_**Chapter Nineteen - Moon Shadow**_

**_Chapter Twenty - Far Ago and Long Away (And I think it's Gonna Be a Long, Long Time)_  
_  
Where your pebbles may fall, may they bring you a long and prosperous life..._**

_**Sound Life**_

North, Elb Kinza, Scanning Disks and GENUINE DOORKNOB ©2003 DMS – Used with permission  
All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow  
N'ya, Greenquail, and Alex Thatcher ©2003 S. Nordwall - Used with permission  
Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0311.27


	22. Moon Shadow

**_A word from the Author_**

**_This has been without a doubt, the most fun writing I've had in a long, long time. With this paired set of stories, I bring TRIGUN: MOON CHILD to a timely climax. I wish to thank all those who have spent the last year reading along and enjoying this massive work. Cheers!_**

**_To Stacey, with all my love…_**

**Chapter Nineteen**

TRIGUN:  
**MOON CHILD**

**Moon Shadow**

**By R. A. Stott**

**EDITOR'S NOTE: Parental Warning – Language and Graphic References**

He saluted the screen as the man's image faded to a spot. He then glanced over at his second in command who was shaking his body-sized head.

"You knew that would be his response," Mr. Button said.

The captain grunted. He looked up at all the work being done around him – the sapper ships were still busy clearing large sections of the Second Moon that were still heading their direction. Others were still busy attacking stray boulders that meandered through their line of fire. He reached down and flipped a switch nearly snapping it off the console.

"Forrestal to Kinza…" he spoke.

Button smiled. "That is not what he ordered," he said.

Strom looked over at his second. "He isn't here," he said with a curl to his lip. "I trust my security chief."

"Oh, I agree," the Commander said as he walked down the steps of the Captain's Loft to his science station. "I just hope you can convince those others out there."

Roy Strom scowled as he looked at the armada that was starting to regroup off his port side. He blew air out his lower lip making his hair flip up.

"Forrestal to Kinza," he repeated.

"Yo," was the reply. He smiled.

"What's your status?" he asked.

Kinza looked at Knives from the pilot's seat he had jogged back into the ship to sit in when he had heard the com unit squawk. He knew that tone of voice.

"Okay Roy, you know what our status is," he said. "Lay it on us."

The captain of Forrestal sighed. "Okay, here it is… Admiral Nightow has given us until six o'clock… If the man responsible for the destruction of the Second Moon and the Space Marines based there is not in custody by then, he has ordered us to start bombardment of the China Grove area."

Knives nodded. "An expected response…" he noted.

Kinza rubbed his stinging arms. "Roy, he does know that we have people in here, and town folk to consider…"

"He is… aware…" the Captain stated as he chose his wording.

"Aware?" Kinza repeated. "Is he aware that the last time an Admiral sent in his grand fleet that way, the overkill was so extreme that space base bombardment was banned?"

"Oh yes," Strom said, his voice now filled with sarcasm. "He was quite responsive on that. He said that this was a different time, a different place, and a different mission."

Kinza looked at the ceiling and grunted. "In other words," he said, "Deneb One is too important for the region to leave well enough alone."

"You got it," Strom replied over the com. "I have all my trust in you, Kinza."

The bandages pinched him momentarily. Kinza winced and snorted. "Peachy… O-six hundred local time or ship's time?" he asked.

A hand came up over the edge of the Captain's Loft stopping Roy's reply.

"The Admiral never mentioned that," Mr. Button noted.

Strom scowled. "You would think he would have meant Space Normal Time – that's what starships work on… what's the current time difference?"

The science officer quickly made some calculations. "Just over six hours difference between our time and theirs. We have an Earth based twenty-four hour clock to play with – theirs is a twenty-seven hour day… Their six o'clock is currently six hours after ours."

Strom pondered this information. "Very well… Kinza, you have until six o'clock YOUR TIME to get the job done. Do you understand?"

Kinza adjusted the pinching bandage. "Understood," he said with a slight twinge of pain. "And just in case, keep someone ready to start the bombardment on my command, okay? I can't guarantee that old Psycho-Plant won't go ballistic on us early."

There was a moment of silence over the com. "Understood," it finally replied. "Leave a com link open then and I'll post a communications crew on standby for you."

Kinza nodded and looked over at Knives. He was looking at him with a puzzled look on his face. "What?"

Knives shook his head. "Why?" he asked.

"Why what?" Kinza sent back at him.

"Why the sudden interest in this planet? Why the need to clear this problem now?" Knives stood up and paced the short hallway between the pilot's house and the back cabin much like Sara had earlier. "Why are they suddenly so interested in this region?"

"Because you're standing in the gateway son," Kinza stated, making Knives look at him with a slightly shocked expression.

"The gateway? The gateway to what?" he asked.

Kinza laughed then started to adjust the bandages when they pinched him again. "The gateway to the rest of the universe, that's what. You see, the Deneb star group is the opening to a vast section of unexplored space. On Earth, they call it the Gold Rush Zone – a great huge area where mankind can continue their expansion… the sort of thing you were complaining about when I first met you."

Knives felt a sudden revulsion in the pit of his stomach. "Continue… why this place though… space is a vast open field – the 'progress' of man shouldn't be stopped by…"

Kinza shook a finger at him halting what he was going to say. "Uh-uh…" he said. "This open region only looks open. The Deneb system is actually the only hole through a series of nasty areas in space here. Even at maximum warp, it takes ten months to get around all the space storms, asteroids, micro planets and nebulas. But the SEEDS ships did something totally unexpected. They strung the needle, so to say. They found the one path through – an eddy in the storm formed by this star system. The twin suns created the wake that cleared space for twelve-hundred sectors around them, and the four Jovian Giant planets on the outer rim of this system act as collectors of space rubble, keeping this area open to traffic."

Knives had started pacing again as he listened to Kinza's explanation. "I see… so this world is important to them… to you?"

"Well, not to me personally," Kinza half laughed. "But think about it… This is the only system that has the way through the maelstrom. These will be the tollbooth planets through the gateway. If we can clean up this problem, this planet is about to become rich." He flipped open a com unit. "Dolly, can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear Kinza sweetie!" the unit squeaked. The Tomassamassa groaned at the 'sweetie' comment.

"Okay Dolly," he replied. "Com link is opened. I'm heading out."

Kinza stepped around the pondering Knives. He looked back at him.

"You coming?" he asked.

"Huh? Oh, yes… yes," Knives said as he popped out of his deep thought and followed him out.

--------------------------------------

Orange Juice – who would have thought…

Sara slid along the wall. Brandywine and Bryant hugged the far side of the angled hallway. The Marines were coming up the center, their guns drawn and ready to fire. Ahead, AC was the lone Snare user, taking the point far enough ahead of the two unprotected Plantoids to keep from zapping them if it became necessary to fire off another volley.

"Three Hundred yards," Cindy noted as she glanced at the side of her gun at the scanner readout.

"Yards?" Bryant whispered to Brandywine. "Why is she calling it yards? Isn't it yarz?"

"No," Brandywine said, "that's the point."

Bryant blinked. "What's the point?"

Brandywine inhaled and glared back at him. "It's yards, not yarz," she told him. "And it's miles, not iles. This D'two character has been messing with our minds since the Great Fall. Even THAT'S wrong. We crashed. We didn't fall… we were forced down onto this rock." She sighed and pushed ahead.

A whistle from AC caught their attentions. He was waiving for Sara and Brandywine to get down. He then raised the Plant Snare and fired it down a hallway to his right. The two ladies grunted as the web flew away. AC then dove for the far side of the entrance as bullets peppered the wall behind him. He peeked around the corner and sent a second net down the corridor.

The bullets stopped. He stood up and took a defensive stance while pointing the unit about the hall.

He fell against the wall as a single bullet struck his flack jacket. He managed to see that he had fallen back towards Sara and Brandywine. He dropped the Snare and pulled his sidearm, firing back at his assailant. He groaned as he staggered to his feet. He smiled as he checked the slug that fell from his jacket and tossed it at his stunned friends.

The next shot caught him in the head.

"Oh shit, AC!" Cindy yelled as she started to run for her comrade, but was subdued by Sara.

"Damn!" Sara heard to her side. She and Cindy looked to their left as they both felt the heat being generated there. Bryant jumped back as he saw his lady starting to glow.

"YAAAAAAH!" Brandywine shouted as she drew on her ancestral powers. Her body vanished and was replaced by a fluttering light-creature that jumped about the corridor – the Angel One.

"Oh my god," Bryant said as he watched. "She's beautiful…"

Whether she heard the compliment or not did not matter. The enraged Plantoid darted around the corner. There was a yelp from there then silence. The light flashed and blinked as the others crept towards the edge of the hallway. They all leapt back as Brandywine returned and dropped into the body of AC.

"Live damn you, live!" they could hear an ethereal voice saying. The bullet slid out of the wound as it repaired itself. But the body refused to come around. Brandywine slowly removed herself.

"It was instantaneous," a deep voice said behind them. "No amount of repairs would have saved him."

"Sarge!" Edmonton cried as she saw her leader behind them. "What about a regen unit?"

"Instantaneous means instantaneous, Private," he said with some pain in his voice. He looked up and saw Sara looking down the hallway with her weapon drawn. She was breathing hard.

"Gordon… Bridgeport…" Sara calmly ordered. "Collect these children and get them back to the Steamer. She stepped over the snared bodies to a pair in the back, one of whom had a still smoking gun. A boy sat lopsided with an extremely dazed look on his face from a forced separation caused by Brandywine. Beside him was a girl who had been shot by AC. She was still breathing. The officer sighed.

"I hope she doesn't remember this," she whispered. She looked up at the wall behind the children. She gritted her teeth and looked back at the Marines.

"Brandywine, come on!" she shouted as she took off around another corner. The light-angel was quickly behind her before Harrisburg, Edmonton or Bryant could say anything. The Sergeant started to follow when he too looked at the wall that Sara had just been staring at.

"He's right behind that wall!" he yelled. He quickly joined Sara and Brandywine as they searched for a door.

--------------------------------------

The dust had settled where the Steamer had impacted with the old ship's hull when the car pulled up. Horloge examined the hull to see if she could see anyone moving.

"He's not here," Montre said as she played with a sequin she had plucked from her sister's outfit. "If anything, he's probably over towards the main street. That's where I sense him most…"

"How can you?" Horloge complained as sweat ran down her face and matted her hair. "I feel him all around me… It's as if I'm being smothered in him!"

Montre giggled. "Well of course you do silly! You are carrying him with you after all!"

Horloge stopped the car and shuffled frantically through a bag behind her seat. She pulled out a revolver and pointed it at her stomach.

"Horloge, what are you doing?" Montre yelped as she climbed up the side of her seat a bit to avoid any possible stray mess flying in her direction. "Are you seriously going to shoot yourself?"

The words 'shoot yourself' made Horloge gasp at what she thinking of doing. She ground her teeth as a trickle of sweat ran down her nose.

"I'd rather shoot myself than carry his child!" she spat.

"Huh," Montre said a bit indifferent. "I wish I was… to be that close to him… uhh!"

Horloge could only stare at her sister in disbelief. Montre gave her a sour look.

"Well? Go ahead, try it!" she rubbed in. "Shoot! You won't be able to do it!"

Horloge snarled and snapped her stare back to the large belly that she hated. She cocked the pistol's hammer and shakily held it against herself.

Montre watched as the wild look on her sister's face switched from furious anger to shock then wonder.

"What?" she asked her.

"The… the baby is humming…" Horloge threw back her head and pulled the trigger. A hole was blown into the floorboard of the car as she wept to the sky.

Montre gingerly reached over and removed the pistol from her sister's fingers. She placed her hand on Horloge's belly.

"He is singing!" she exclaimed. "What is that?"

Horloge held her forehead. "Something called 'Moon Shadow'…" She felt the hand come off her and her sister flop back into her seat. She looked over at her and saw her pouting. She was nervously spinning the chamber on the pistol.

"Moon Shadow?" Montre whispered. "He's thinking about… her…"

Horloge looked confused as the music in her head got louder. "Huh?" she asked as her temples felt like they'd explode.

"He's thinking about HER!" Montre barked to the dashboard. She then held the gun out pointing to the south side of town. "He's over there! Drive!"

Knives looked about as he sensed his surroundings. Millie, Miami and Dallas were in front of him tending to Meryl. She was still unconscious and a bit windblown from her ride with Goethe. He looked to the west – nothing there, yet… To the east – a car… to the north – a group of vehicles with more humans in them… and others… must be more from this Federation Kinza talked about… He pulled his gun out and headed towards the schoolhouse. He stopped and looked over his shoulder and smiled.

"Ah… he's coming!" he told himself as he continued towards the school.

Kinza was watching over the group from the remains of the sheriff's office. He looked back just as an off-road vehicle came over the rise of a hill behind the rubble.

"Hey, Yerkies!" he yelled. "What's up?"

The man in the passenger seat saluted the Tomassamassa. "Northern perimeter secured sir!" he shouted.

Kinza saluted back. "Very well," he called back. "Start to widen out to cover the rest of the town's approaches that way."

"Understood," Yerkies said. He could be seen ordering some other vehicles to his side to continue the move along the outer areas.

Kinza looked back at the group in the town square. Now he was short two people… he scampered down the rubble towards the gathered.

"Where's Miami?" he asked.

Dallas looked over at the shuttle. "She went over to get a medi-kit," he said.

"Ah," Kinza nodded then stepped back. The ground he had just been standing on was shaking slightly, and a light was showing on it. He looked up to see a star dropping on them.

It was a small star at least. It hovered momentarily then burst wide in white, red and dark streamers. They swirled about, the dark first wrapping around and forming a body, the white covering the top part with a shirt and two massive wings then the red covering the rest in a scarlet jacket.

"Frack, I haven't seen that in a while!" Kinza said as he looked at Vash. "I thought someone made that jacket for you before. Didn't you abandon it?"

Vash drew in a breath and smiled as he looked to the sky. "They did," he said. "But now I have a renewed mission and red is most fitting." He looked down and saw Meryl on the ground in Millie's lap. His face turned white.

"She's fine," Millie said with a slightly crooked smile and a tremble to her voice. "She's just been through quite a bit," she added as she brushed some of Meryl's hair out of her face. When she looked up at the gunfighter though, both she and Kinza nearly jumped back, as two burning eyes greeted them.

"Explain," Vash growled.

Kinza swallowed and made sure he knew where his Snare was just in case. "First we were attacked by Horloge… she was knocked out by some of her time tricks… she was then carried off by someone named Goethe at super high speeds… I believe she is only a bit wind-blown."

Kinza drew a sigh of relief when he saw that the eyes were no longer fiery white. They were still angry, but less threatening.

"Where is Knives?" he steamed.

Goethe gritted his teeth seeing Vash there. He brought his mind up and dropped his will on those still within the shuttle.

Knives stood in the classroom as he examined the opening in the floor. The children that had protected it were off defending the base elsewhere.

"So, are you going to tell the rest of them?" he heard from behind. He smiled.

"Tell them what Miss Miami?" he asked.

She huffed. "That you raped Horloge? That you implanted her with your child? That you intend to have your descendant take your place? That you're still under D'two's influence?"

She stopped when she noticed that Knives was laughing. He was holding up his black gun, examining the lines in the barrel.

"You're close, but you're still wrong," he said. "You see this? You saw how large I finally managed to get it to transform? Oh, that's right, you were frozen in time… well let me tell you, it wasn't very big. It's because of Vash's marksmanship, and Mr. Kinza's healer, that I can no longer tap fully into The Source. I don't blame Kinza though. He's a good… man? I don't know… He's probably the only person I can call my friend… After all, he isn't human, is he?"

Miami stood with an uneasy list to her self. Her cat arrived and stared into the room from the doorway.

"So, what are you planning on doing?" she asked. "Are you planning on shooting me?"

Knives glanced back at her and smiled. "My dear, my soul purpose was to create a paradise for our kind, not kill them off. But the humans have changed that… they obviously aren't going to go away…" He slipped the gun back into its holster.

"What do you mean? You did kill many of our kind!" Miami howled. "What about the Great Fall? And D'two is still killing 'our people,' as you put it!"

Knives shook his head. "You still don't understand do you?" he said below his breath. "Hold her…"

A pair of hands grabbed the small woman from behind. When she looked back, she found Boston there along with Photon. They both had the same glassy look on their faces.

"Boston! Photon! What are you doing?" she yelped. Her Kuroneko hissed and scampered away.

Knives grinned a distorted smile. "Amazing that the human mind can get around these Doorknobs, isn't it?" He turned towards the hole and jumped in. "You'll understand soon," he added.

"She will indeed, very shortly," the gravelly voice of Goethe rang in her head. "My brother taught me well."

Goethe slipped in behind the schoolhouse as his controlled servants mindlessly surrounded Miami. He then began to press his mind upon hers.

"No!" she shouted back.

"You will succumb, my dear," he stated flatly. "If I must, I will use your darkest fear against you."

The world vanished from around her. Miami looked about. First it was black - then it was blue - then white. But whatever this place was, it was void of anything but herself.

A metallic clank behind her made her spin about. A wall had sprung up there. It was followed by another – then another – then another – then two more. She now found herself in a cube. The walls then started to close in on her.

"Funny – a Plant with claustrophobia," Goethe said in her mind. "How silly. You spend the better part of your life in a bulb and yet you can't stand the containment. How… sad."

"NO! GET OUT!" she screamed to the closing cube. "GET OUT!! GET OUT!! GET OUT!!"

"Sorry… I'm here to stay," Goethe told her. "I must say, the others were no problem at all, though they never knew what hit them. You on the other hand are different. You have a strong mind."

"Philo, help me…"

"He's dead, dear. He can't help you."

"Dallas… Dallas…"

"Nope… strike two… he's busy with Vash and company. I knew bringing that girl here would help out…"

"It certainly did," another voice said in the rapidly shrinking universe.

Goethe felt a tapping on his shoulder and looked back, just in time to be greeted by a huge fist to the flat of his face. Dallas sent him crashing through the side wall of the school. At his feet was the cat, still hissing at the human.

For Miami, the slamming of Goethe by Dallas had not helped – if anything, it became worse, as the constricting got faster.

"NO! NO! NOOOO!!" she shouted in her mind, bringing to the forefront her own powers of The Source. Goethe got up wiping a trickle of blood from his mouth in time to see Photon, Boston and the judges all get hurled back by a pair of golden white wings and a shimmering body.

"You did this," Miami said from her ethereal state. "You forced this from me! Now you shall pay!"

It was too fast for Dallas to see, and Goethe the Thunderbolt had not expected it. Miami had stopped his advance into her mind by going full power – beyond the fluttering body-less Angel One state to the level of a full Plant within a containment vessel. She had become faster than lightning.

She struck Goethe, passing through his body and out the side of the school. She dropped at Vash's feet.

Goethe sat as if nothing had happened, though to him, a Steamer had just smashed through his soul. He gasped as he felt numb, and he could see those he controlled shaking their heads, free of his control.

"Brother," echoed in his mind.

"L-Legato?" he asked.

"Brother, you weren't as strong as you thought you were," Bluesummers said to him from nowhere.

"Legato! What has happened to me?"

The voice was joined by strange music – a sax squawking out a perverse tune – "Come brother – it is time to join us. We'll play cards again. Come."

Goethe looked up at Dallas, who looked as if he was about to strike him again. But he was actually slowly turning away, obviously heading in the direction that the Plantoid Angel had flown in – odd how slowly he moved.

"Cards… yes cards," he said. "Deal me in brother…"

Photon watched her mind captor slump to the ground in a heap as Dallas ran out the hole he had created with him in the side of the building.

Dallas charged around the building as he heard Millie shrieking Miami's name several times.

"Miami! What have you done!?" she shouted as she was coming over with Meryl in her arms. "You'll die! You'll burn yourself out!"

Miami's mind flashed back to when she had seen Vash change the first time. She smiled. She looked back at her wings on her back as she stood up.

"I've pulled the pin, haven't I?" she asked. "The time is ticking…" She looked up at the sky and sighed. A tear rolled down her face.

"I can no longer feel The Source," she said. "I only feel eternity calling me." She looked over at Dallas. "I would have wanted to spend it with you…"

He smiled. "You would have preferred to spend it with Philo – I heard you call his name first."

She sighed. "I'm sorry," she told him. "He was always there for me, just as you are now."

"You can always shut this down," Vash told the glowing woman. "Become a normal human – be with Dallas for the rest of your life…"

She shook her head. "No, I would not like to do that. I am a Plantoid – a child of Angel Five. To live out a normal human's life would be unfair to Dallas, who would have to choose between his own mortality and mine… No, I choose to burn out as filaments do. After all, it is natural."

Vash stepped back. He knew about how Plants sometimes burned out, but he never thought he'd see one outside a containment vessel. He smiled and nodded.

"I understand," he told her.

Miami stepped over to Dallas's side and took his huge hands in her tiny ones. He bent down on one knee to be at her level. She kissed him and held him close for as long as she could whispering in his ear. He closed his eyes and listened intently to her final words to him.

"HUH!" she gasped.

The human part that had been Miami exhausted itself and fell to the ground. The Angel Five lifted away from Dallas' grasp and fluttered briefly in the air above them. Then, as if a gust of wind had caught a ring of smoke, it vanished in a streamer of white.

Dallas looked down at the darkened body before him. He slammed the dirt with his fist.

"Okay, legendary gunslinger," he growled, "its time to act the part!"

--------------------------------------

Sara followed Brandywine as she darted about the hallway looking for the entrance. The plan was simple – strike hard and fast – don't let D'two have a chance to counterattack. Simple – sure…

"Found it!" Brandywine yelled as she zipped around a corner into the steamy room of bulbs, book and papers.

"Hey! Wait! Don't go in there all by…" Harrisburg's warning went unheeded as Sara ran in just as fast. "…yourselves… Damn it!" He ran in, gun and sword drawn.

He found Sara just inside the doorway with her Nightstick in one hand and her gun box deployed on her back looking around the large open room. The flighty Brandywine was popping in and out of the nooks and crannies of the area like a bird trying to find a way out.

"Where are you, you little creep!" she was yelling. "You're just like some idiot may-fly and one of my freshly gessoed paintings – always getting your feet into things you shouldn't! COME OUT HERE!"

"Uncle, I know you're in here!" Sara shouted. "I can feel your presence! Please Uncle! We must put an end to all this!"

"So…" a quiet voice in a corner of the room said. "My niece has arrived at last. So how is your mother?"

"She is worried about you, Uncle," she called out while looking hard into that corner. "She only wants to see you safe!"

"She wants to punish me again, that's what she wants!" the voice said, now coming from a different corner of the room. Sara and Harrisburg spun about in search of the sound as Brandywine hovered in the middle sensing the area. "Why else would she have one of you in her favorite feathery form?" he added.

"Should have kept quiet!" Brandywine exclaimed as she dove into the red pitted sphere in the center of the room.

"Don't go in there!" Sara yelped as the steel and ceramic hatch slammed shut.

"Then there were two," D'two cackled.

Harrisburg slammed his fist against the hull of the containment vessel making it ring like a bell.

"Oh, that was good!" D'two laughed. "Brings back memories that does… Reminds me how the guards at the old South Street Power Station would hammer the outside of my vessel with their batons and yell at me. ROOM SERVICE! – ANYONE ALIVE IN THERE?! – I had my fill of that!"

The vessel rocked side to side then cracked along the seal edge of the hatch. Harrisburg stepped back just as the door was blown clear and an enraged Brandywine shot out.

"But… that vessel is supposed to be inescapable!" Sara said in shock.

"Half the door pins are broken," Brandywine yelled. "It won't contain him anymore!"

"Of course it won't fools! How do you think I got out?" D'two shouted as he stepped out of the shadows to their left. He raised his hands and sent shards of energy their way.

Harrisburg ducked, instinctively attempting to avoid the strikes. Sara was taken by surprise and bore the full brunt of the attack.

She looked at herself. Save for a few strands of hair severed, she felt nothing more than a few tickles of static.

Harrisburg found one of the shards sticking into his armor. It had struck his skin and stopped. He plucked it like a stray feather and looked at it with confusion.

"What the hell?" he rumbled. "This is D'two, right?"

Brandywine did not wait to find out. She dropped on the man and constricted her energy around him.

"Hah! What is this?" he harped. "Is this supposed to hold me?" He flexed his own powers. Brandywine was having difficulty holding her own.

"Hey!" she yelped. "Isn't he supposed to be afraid of this?"

"Silly girl," he cried with near glee. "Those two are advanced Plants! The man and my niece because they were born of a mix of Human and Plantoid! But YOU – you're nothing more than a Plant!"

Harrisburg crushed the shard in his hand. "Then let me impress on you MY strength," he snarled.

"NO! NO!" Sara shouted, stopping him from attempting to slug the man. "You'll only hurt BW!"

He looked at the grinning D'two from behind the wall of energy. "Then what do you suggest?" the Marine barked. "He'll break free soon enough!"

Sara looked about at the books and papers moldering away in the steam. Near a small stack she saw one of the library's old style book lamps. She smiled and quickly started to disassemble it.

"You, military man! Help me!" Brandywine yelled through her pain.

"Yes – yes, help her!" D'two said with a grin. "If only to set me free of this accursed binding!"

Harrisburg stepped around the glowing shield that the artist had brought about the planet's tormentor and could not find a way to help her against the will and strength of D'two. He readied himself for the inevitable.

"Uncle! Over here! Look at this!"

Harrisburg looked at Sara. She was holding up an old light bulb that she had drawn a smilie on using her finger and the rotting ink that had pooled in the room.

"NO!" D'two shouted and withered. "NO! NOT THAT FOUL FACE!"

Sara stepped up to her Uncle and pressed the bulb closer. Each step made him cower further and further. Brandywine closed the energy snare in on the man, finding it easier to contain him now. He was now crying to himself in a fetal position, his mind broken by the sight of his greatest fear.

"What the hell just happened?" Brandywine asked from the glow.

Harrisburg scratched his head. "I don't get it… this was supposed to be the toughest fight. He was a pushover! Taken down by a GE sixty watt soft white light-bulb…"

"Of course," a new voice said. "After all, he was only a Plant – not a superior being like me."

A bullet smashed against the armor near Harrisburg's shoulder, sending him spinning into the bulkhead behind them. He quickly stood up with his gun drawn and sprayed the far wall of the cavern with lead.

"Why are you shooting at someone who isn't there?" the voice asked with a laugh. "You and I should be on the same ground, Sergeant. Our parenting was the same after all."

"KNIVES!" Sara shouted. "Knives, what is this all about?"

A force wall appeared at the entrance to the cavern that lead to the library ship. Two women stepped out of the darkness followed by Knives. Harrisburg's second spray of bullets was stopped within the energy.

"My dear Sara Montgomery, I did miss you," he said from behind the field, getting a sour response from Montre who snapped an angry look at her. "I would have preferred to have transferred my energy to you, but time was short, and that trip to the Fifth Moon you took was at a rather bad moment."

She stood up, leaving the bulb next to her uncle. "You – you were going to do what?"

He smiled. "You know, he's right," he said pointing at her uncle. "The power of our race increases expedientially as we procreate. Oh, sorry, am I using too many large words for you Sergeant?"

Harrisburg gritted his teeth and started to adjust his gun.

"Just think about it!" Knives continued. "If the child of a Human and Plantoid has such power, imagine what the child of parents of the same type would create! A Human/Plantoid and Human/Plantoid mix could have easily DOUBLED its power!"

"Then you lead me on all the time," Sara said.

Knives looked at Horloge and Montre. "Of course, my dear. You do not represent what I was planning for our people. And as I said, time ran out – I needed to do something, and do something quickly." He rubbed Horloge's shoulder. She glanced back then returned to her position of shield maiden.

Just a half hour earlier she had been screaming in pain. Montre had wanted to get to Knives as quickly as possible, but the fantastic speed at which the child was coming could no longer wait. They found the small clinic that the China Grove doctor used, but did not find him. Montre had to act as midwife as the child was born.

Montre had wanted to strangle Knives – after all, the baby had been singing "Moon Shadow" – a reference to the young officer before her. But as she cradled the newborn in her arms, it impressed on her the need to find and help Knives, not kill him.

It was then that Knives had entered the office.

"Ladies, I am pleased to see you here," he had told them. "Horloge, thank you for your services, but I need one more mission from you that only you can perform."

She was about to tell him to shove it when the infant intervened. She looked at its bright blue eyes and felt her mind change.

"Oh, of course," she said. "But I've lost my pike…"

Knives tossed her a rod. "This will do," he stated. He then reached down and kissed her on the cheek. "You know you're the only one I would trust with this mission."

"And what about me?" Montre asked.

Knives placed his hand on her cheek and rubbed it then kissed her long and hard. When he broke away, the shocked look on her face switched to sheer joy.

"I understand," she said with glee. "I will be right back!" She wrapped the infant in some linens. She then stopped time and ran out to the car and drove away with the child.

Knives smiled. He tapped Horloge on the shoulder, bringing her out of the time out.

"You and I have a mission to work out while she's away," he told her.

She looked at the rod – a power conductor from the ships – then up at him with wet eyes.

"I don't want to loose you again," she wept.

He embraced her and let her cry on his shoulder.

"Never again, till death do us part," he told her.

She sniffed. "What about Montre?"

Knives held her out. "I love you both, you know that."

She smiled. "Knives…" she said. Her life with Sandusky seemed to have been forgotten. All she could see was the man before her. "What must I do?"

"I need a rift in time," he had told her. "I need to go back in time and space… Send me to Earth, the day of the launching of the SEEDS ships."

Horloge looked at him askew. "Why do you want to do that? Are you trying to change the future?"

He smiled and kissed her on the forehead. "No – no dear," he had said. "I need to make sure that I'm born." He then kissed her as he had her sister.

Horloge and Montre continued to hold the shield up as Knives held out his black gun.

"I just came back from a wonderful trip," he announced. "Do you want to know where?"

Sara snorted as she too raised her gun. "Let me guess… the SEEDS launch…"

Knives gave a mock surprised look at her. "Give the little lady a prize! Why yes, indeed! And do you know why I went there?"

"My guess would be that you made sure that my Uncle's vessel was placed aboard the Alpha Ship," she replied.

"Exactly," Knives applauded. "You are a very bright girl, aren't you? I also made sure that a timer I devised would be installed on the side of the vessel – that little box there – I'm surprised it lasted through the Great Fall – so that the energy shielding that prevented his mind controlling powers from leaking out would gradually fall. It would eventually let Sandusky and my dear Horloge start that process of having me born in the first place."

Sara looked at Horloge. "They were on the Alpha Ship?"

"Plants Four and Five respectively," Knives said while rubbing the gun against his cheek. "Amazing how you can get the dominoes to start falling, but you can't get them to stop!"

"Now that you've told us all of this, what now freak?" Harrisburg growled as he pulled the release on his gun.

Knives looked at the ceiling. "Well… unfortunately, for the betterment of the future, I will have to dispose of you now… sorry…"

The Marine snarled. "You're right about one thing about us… We're very much different than those ladies. And we're trained on how to handle your types!" he charged his energy through his hand and placed it on the housing of the gun. He then pulled the trigger to the Taser.

Two wires struck the shield followed by both the discharge of the gun and the Sergeant's own power. The shield shattered and the ladies were sent backwards against the walls on either side of the corridor. Harrisburg was also tossed away, slamming hard against the side of the sphere.

Knives sent three more rounds at Harrisburg. Two struck the flack jacket – the third missed.

"Shoot him in the head! He's not protected there!" Horloge shouted as she attempted to get up. Knives sent his fifth round at the target.

Sara drew on her own energy and watched the trajectory of the bullet. She concentrated and twisted the angle it took, sending it ricocheting away.

Knives looked down on her. "Naughty," he said as he changed the gun into the small Angel Arm he now could create.

"KNIVES!"

He looked behind him. A pair of burning eyes greeted him down the hallway along with a silver gun.

"Ah, Vash… good to see you, brother!" he said.

"My fingers!"

Sara looked back at her Uncle. He was still curled up with the light bulb rattling against his nose, but he was managing to point towards Knives. It was then that she noticed that he was missing his index finger. She looked back at the semi-transformed hand on Knives.

"That's where he got the material for the revolvers?" she asked aloud.

Vash looked at his gun. "I always wondered where it came from – I never knew you had taken it from a fellow Plant that was still alive!" he ended in a shout.

"Not that it mattered much to you, brother, but I had other uses for Delta Two than just a wild goose chase!"

"The name's D'two…" he said weakly.

"Hey!" Brandywine said as she materialized beside the form of D'two. "This guy's dying!"

Knives placed his finger to his lips as Vash only could gawk. "Not quite, only partly… and nice body, my dear. I thought so back in Promontory Falls as well."

Brandywine looked down. She forgot that by going the Angel route, her clothes… had vanished!

"Yeep!" she squeaked and quickly wrapped herself in her wings as they began to melt off her back.

Sara dropped down to her Uncle's side. His face had shriveled up and he was now only skin and bones.

"What have you done!?" she shouted.

"Have you not been watching, child?" Knives scolded the officer. "Montre was only fingers when you revived her! Delta Two there has not been in a working Plant in nearly one hundred thirty years! Only his fingers have been in contact with The Source at all times, the fool!"

Sara held his head up, knocking the bulb away. "That's why you never regenerated your fingers?" she asked with a tear trickling down her face.

"He told me not to… a reminder of who was in charge…"

D'two slumped in her arms. The body crumpled as if made of dried clay.

Knives sighed. "Too bad for D'two… at least he lives on inside these guns…"

"Give it up, brother…" Vash ordered. "There is no place for you to go."

Knives half laughed. "As always, you're both correct, and so very wrong, Vash." With that, he snapped around and fired his mini Angel Arm at a wall and blasted a hole through the hull.

"Montre, if you please?" he asked as he started to run for the hole.

She smiled and knitted her brow. Time froze for many in the room as Knives made his way out the hole. But Vash wasn't held as he dashed around Montre after his brother.

Montre looked down on Sara, who had been caught off guard by the time slip and was held. She drew a knife out and moved towards her.

Harrisburg suddenly rose from the ground and tapped Sara on the shoulder, releasing her from the trap much to Montre's surprise. The officer saw the oncoming attack and put her training to work, grabbing Montre by the wrist that held the knife, and tossing her over her shoulder, adding a bolt of energy with the palm of her hand to the throw. Montre landed in a heap in books long the back side of the containment vessel.

"Forgot that we are advanced Plants did you?" the Sergeant commented as he was impressed by the officer's judo.

Knives exited the ships to see that he had struck a vehicle as well when he blasted his hole. The driver was falling out his side while his passenger seemed to be taking shrapnel.

"Sorry about that," he told the still men and ran towards the town's center.

Vash saw the same and stopped to remove some of the metal that was still outside the man's body. He then scowled at the footprints in the dusty soil and took off after his brother again.

Sara and Harrisburg followed after the brothers leaving Montre to collect her wits.

"Montre, get out of there!" rang through her head. "Collect your sister and get out! You know the plan!"

Her long hair had her all tied up. She climbed up and collected her mind.

"Yes, my dear," she gasped in an attempt to get her breath back. She stumbled up to Horloge and touched her hand. Her sister blinked and looked at her.

"Come on – time to go!" she told Horloge and took her hand.

"I'm sorry," she said. Montre looked back at her.

"Huh?"

Horloge held up her hand. "I'm sorry I took your fingers," she said as she touched the digits she held. "It wasn't my idea…"

Montre smiled and held her sister. "It was for a good cause," she said into her ear. "Besides, I'm not through giving this world the finger!" she added with a wink.

Horloge giggled. The ladies then ran out the same way as the others had, past the frozen Desert Ratz, around the back side of the pieces of ship that made up the base, to where they left their vehicle, which seemed to be under guard now.

A frozen guard, but under guard nonetheless.

Montre tapped the hood, releasing the vehicle from the time stop. She then looked at the person guarding the car – an alien with tall furry ears.

"Ooooh! I just love those ears!" Montre squealed. "And that tail! Oh, can we keep him?"

Horloge looked over at the creature. "I don't know – are you sure it's a he? And have you thought about dog food?"

Montre scuffed the ground with her foot. "I guess not…" She then kissed the critter and jumped into the passenger seat. "Let's go!"

Horloge looked down between her feet. "Where did this hole come from?" she asked.

Montre leaned against the windshield. "You shot it," she stated. "Don't you remember?"

Horloge stared at the floorboard. "I did?" she asked. "Really? Why?"

Montre looked at her sister with concern. "The baby," she attempted to remind her. "You nearly shot the baby…"

Horloge now had the concern look. "Baby? What baby?" That question got Montre's hand placed on her forehead.

"Huh… no temperature…" she said. "Did you knock your head when that Marine burst our shield?"

"I removed the memory from her mind," the voice of Knives rang in her head. "Now I suggest you get moving before I do the same to you!"

She watched as Horloge's face momentarily went blank. She then smiled and turned the key to start the car.

"Where to?" she asked her passenger.

"East – Violet Town…" Montre said as she turned to face the windscreen. The car tore out into the desert. As it did, Montre snapped her finger and time was restored.

"By the way… daddy says hi…" she told Horloge.

Meryl looked up at the glare and blur the world had become. When last she saw, she had been in Olympia City. Now it seemed that she was being carried by someone.

"Meryl?"

A familiar voice – slightly perky… most of the time… why was it sounding so worried?

"Millie?" she asked. She ran her fingers through her short black hair – it was strangely mussed up – and her pendant and her Doorknob were tangled around each other. "What? What's going on?"

She then felt a snap of something being placed on her neck. Instantly her vision cleared and the world came into focus. She looked over her shoulder to see a bandaged hand holding a tube-like device.

"Welcome back, brown-eyes!" Kinza said with a wink. It took her a moment to remember that she knew this odd looking creature, but it finally dawned on her who he was.

"Oh! Oh, what happened?" she asked still a bit woozy as Millie put her down on her feet. "Mr. Kinza! What happened to your arms?" she then asked finally seeing his wounds.

He shook his head as he put the hypo-spray into his medi-kit. "I burned myself, that's all," he lied. "Now then… where are those… two?"

Knives came running into the town square. He stopped by the fountain and turned to see his pursuer, his gun raised.

Vash stood at the other end of the street. He was panting hard as he held his gun up.

"This has got to stop, Knives!" he shouted.

"Vash?" Meryl and Millie called. They stopped when Kinza held up his arm.

"Shh! Something's really wrong here… let's see what happens," he said.

The com officer on Forrestal heard the comment and brought the image up on the main viewer on the bridge. Captain Strom watched with interest as the drama played out.

"What is this?" Meryl asked as she took a step back and felt something behind her. She looked down and saw the prone body there.

"HUH!" Who is that?" she nearly screamed until she recognized the face. "MIAMI!" she now let fly making everyone look over at her. "OH MIAMI, NO!"

Vash watched as Knives lowered his gun and bowed his head. He looked at his gun and transformed it back to normal. He then tossed it to the ground.

"You… You surrender?" Vash asked, startled by his brother's action.

Knives shook his head. "This body… this body is a waste…"

Kinza shook his head. "It was you all along, right?"

Millie stared at Kinza. Meryl slowly did as well. Dallas, Boston and Photon stepped off the porch of the schoolhouse and listened. The judges stayed grouped together, their leader at the forefront to hear the new proceedings.

"You lead us along – making it look as if this D'two had manipulated you and the others," Kinza said, as if he were now the prosecuting attorney. "But in reality, it was you who was still pulling the strings here, wasn't it?"

Knives nodded. "This body… you both have made it useless…"

Vash looked at his gun. The day he shot his brother – the day he thought he had brought all this madness to an end – the day that actually started the whole mess over again ran through his mind.

"Your bullets… your healer… I am nearly powerless… I barely can feel The Source anymore…" Knives crossed his arms. "I need release… I need finality…" He looked up at his brother and smiled. "You have him to thank, you know…" He gestured towards the Tomassamassa.

"Kinza?" Vash asked glancing at the security officer.

Knives looked over at him. "He gave me the answer… he gave me the answer even after I set my plans in motion… Thank you Mr. Kinza… You were truly my only friend…"

The look on his face was sheer shock. Kinza looked up knowing his Captain was watching.

"Oh damn," he said.

Strom tapped a com switch. "Prepare to retrieve all scanning disks from that area," he said.

Knives cleared his throat. "I no longer see humanity as a plague, brother, so you should be happy to hear that. A bother, yes, but one that, thanks to Mr. Kinza's persuasions, will mostly be spared. A necessary evil, I guess one could say… But as for me, this body is useless to me." He clenched his arms together as Sara and Harrisburg entered the square.

"What is he doing?" Harrisburg asked. Sara stepped a bit closer.

"Don't you feel it?" she asked. "He's trying to build up his energy… he's trying to go full power!"

"You can't do that!" Vash shouted. "You don't have the ability!"

"Why?" Knives shouted back. "Because you caught my four corners? Because I'm no longer true with The Source? Because my fellow Plants despise what I've done in their name? I wasn't supposed to be able to make the Angel Arm anymore, was I? Then I can do this, brother dear! I can be like you! I will be like you! I AM LIKE YOU!"

His shirt tore away as a pair of wings split out of his back, not like his brother's had, but messily with splattering of his own blood being scattered across the fountain. He screamed at the sky, his face wrenched in a twisted shape of pain, torment and anguish.

"You see Vash?" he yelled as his wings dripped. "Mr. Kinza was right! You can shoot me in my four corners, but you needed to get me here!" He pointed at his head, making a 'bang' motion with his finger. He unfurled his wings wide, spraying the spectators.

"I WILL BE REDEEMED!" he shouted to the blue sky. "I WILL BE REDEEMED!"

He launched himself, slowly. His wings were only barely strong enough to lift him at first, but they steadily took him higher. Each beat – each stroke – he climbed into the sky.

Vash stood in awe of his brother. He had done it – reconnected to The Source just like he had… only… something was not right in his feel for his power.

Knives knew it too. He stopped climbing, having the wings hover. He lowered his head and sobbed.

"Is this the best I could do with this body?" he asked himself. "Then my conclusions were correct little one. Remember this well…"

He looked to the east.

"Montre, send in the fires!" he sent off to the distant cloud of dust.

The lights went out in the Steamer. North looked about the darkened cabin with the many scared children that had been rescued.

"What is Lexington doing?" he mumbled as he pulled a flashlight out of his pocket. His answer came from a clanking and creaking from the rear of the ship. He hurried back to the engine room with Edmonton close behind.

He stopped at the doorway and looked up.

"What's going on?" Edmonton asked as she saw him observing the ceiling.

North pointed at the roof. "Blue sky," he said. He looked at the confused expression on the Private's face. "We should not be seeing sky in the engine room unless the sky hatch is open."

The rear section of the Tunnel Steamer split open revealing the flat top part of the Micro-Plant that powered it. Inside, Lexington was building power.

"Sara!"

Her name rang in her ears as she looked about to see who had called her. "Lexington?" she asked.

"Sara, Knives intends on being struck down by the shotgun cannons!" he told her.

She looked skywards as she could see that Knives had now thrown his arms wide. "How?" she asked.

"I overheard his transmission to Montre!" he explained. "She still controls those guns, right?"

The realization struck her. She ran to where Knives had stood at the fountain.

"Knives! You can't do that! The people!" she yelled.

"What Sara?" Meryl asked. "What's he going to do?"

"Lexington just told me that he is going to have all the shotgun cannons shoot him down!" she cried. "KNIVES! The blast! These people will all perish as well!"

Kinza's com unit beeped. He flipped it open. Before he could even ask, Dotty was yelping on it "INCOMING FIRE - YOUR LOCATION!"

Sara heard a click behind her and saw Vash holding his gun up at Knives. She swallowed.

"KNIVES!" he shouted. "THIS HAS GOT TO STOP NOW!!"

Knives looked down. "Then shoot brother."

Vash's eye flew wide.

"Shoot me brother," Knives repeated his request. "End this misery for me! Finish the deed done a year ago! It is destiny! You will kill me, or I will kill myself – the choice is yours… My way is just a bit more… involved…"

"The people!" Vash called, tears flowing down his cheeks. "Knives! The people! You'll kill all the people!"

"My last act of vengeance then," his brother stated bluntly. "You have the choice, Vash the Stampede! Kill me now, or watch all that you care for die in a pyre of flame and ash with me!"

The silver gun shook and twitched. Vash lowered it and dropped to his knees.

"I can't… I can't kill my own brother!" he sobbed.

"Well I have no compunction," Harrisburg grumbled and cocked his gun. But Sara placed her hand on it to lower it.

"It's useless anyway, Sergeant," she said. "The rounds are inbound already. What we need is a way to deflect them!"

Kinza looked at his communicator. "Forrestal, did you copy that?" he asked it.

Strom looked at his science officer who shook his head. He sighed.

"Kinza, we are out of range," he stated. "We'll be twenty seconds late by the time we get within a safe margin."

"Sara," Lexington said to her again. "There is a way…"

She looked about. "Tell me, quickly!"

"Sara, dear…" he said to her. "You… you're still a child, even though you matured in body, the Plantoid you came from is still an infant at heart. You have a vast reserve that you can tap into. And I can assist you. Use our combined power to deflect the energy away!"

Sara looked at everyone. They were looking back at her with perplexed expressions.

"Was that Mr. Lexington?" Millie asked.

"Thirty seconds!" Kinza announced.

Sara concentrated. Her suit bulged on her back and she shouted in pain. She fell down to her knees as a pair of hands grabbed her. She looked up to see Vash holding her with his new left arm, and his knife flashing in her face in his right.

"That suit won't rip like his shirt did," he said as he started to tear at the hardened fabric.

"Vash! Look out!"

Meryl's shout of warning was just a moment too late, as he was struck by a flying kick to the shoulders by his brother. They tumbled away into the dust, both of their wings tangling with each other. Meryl quickly ran over to Sara's side.

"Get her wings out!" Vash yelled from his position on the ground.

Meryl picked up the dropped knife and started to assist Sara.

"NO! STOP!" Knives shouted as he attempted to reach back for Meryl, but found Vash clinging to his foot. Vash then beat his wings hard and lifted them both off the ground.

Meryl tore one side just enough to be swatted by the contained wing as it sprung forth, tossing her back. Millie now had the knife and lunged at the stubborn second wing. A quick stab downwards through the fabric, then a pulling tear caused the other one to sprout wide.

Sara quickly got to her feet and smiled. She saw Millie crying behind her.

"You'll die… you'll burn out?" Millie asked.

Sara smiled. "No… I won't." She looked up at the sky, which was starting to get brighter from the incoming salvos. "But I'm not sure how I'll get through this…"

She jumped and launched herself over the town.

"NO! NO! NO!" Knives shouted. He looked at his brother, who still had him by one foot. He swung his free leg and kicked his leg loose of his grip. He then started in on Sara, but Vash snagged him again and spun him around.

"I want you to meet someone you haven't seen in awhile, Knives!" Vash snarled. "MY LEFT HAND!"

He punched him as hard as he could, causing him to fold over. But the strike was made by an arm that had not been used in over twenty years. Knives took the advantage of his position to rise up quickly and head-butt Vash.

Over the town, Sara concentrated on her power, drawing on all she could tap from The Source. Below, Lexington started to send her all of his own surplus power.

Within the Steamer, North read the readings on the Plant and shook his head. He adjusted as much coolant that he could to his friend's endeavor.

Knives headed for Sara again. This time though, he felt a stinging sensation that he had felt before. He looked back to see the smoking silver gun in his brother's hands.

"Again Vash?" he laughed. "I've become a regular target for you, haven't I?"

"You give me no choice, Knives," Vash repented. "Just like you didn't give Legato any choice… just like you didn't give Goethe any either… You must be stopped."

"At any costs, brother?" he asked. He then noticed that Vash had lowered his gun and was smiling.

"Doesn't matter now," the man in scarlet said. "Your time has run out. And we must bow to the superiority of a child."

Knives looked back to see that Sara was now surrounded by a sphere of energy. Her long blond hair was swaying about in a fan shape as her wings slowly beat in what appeared to be zero gravity. She stared directly ahead, neither seeing nor acknowledging anyone.

Before Knives could react, the first bolt of energy struck the sphere. Then a second one dropped in from the north. A third was drawn in from the south. Then the rest came in and slammed hard on the ball.

Within the cataclysm was Sara, holding her hands together as if praying. Below, Lexington struggled to continue contact with her and not burn himself out in the process. North was finding it to be a loosing battle. Each time a bolt of energy would strike the sphere, the entire Steamer would convulse, and the meters would surge. Breakers were blowing throughout the vehicle.

"No!" Knives cried as he approached the mass of energy. The final rounds added themselves to the growing field, and it was as if Gunsmoke now had a third sun over China Grove. He reached out and entered the field.

"KNIVES!" Vash shouted.

"VASH! NO!" Meryl cried, stopping his attempt to follow his brother.

Knives looked at Sara, her hair swirling around her, the angel wings swaying as if a gentle breeze were playing on them. She smiled.

"Was this what you wanted Knives?" she asked him. "Was this what you intended?"

Knives moved up to her and placed his hand gently to her face. He smiled as well.

_"I'm being followed by a Moon Shadow,"_ he gently sang to her, _"Moon Shadow, Moon Shadow…"_ Sara looked down.

"Remember that night at Promontory Falls when I carried you through the muddy streets?" he asked her in return. "I told you that I was carrying the prettiest Plant in the world - And I did mean it."

Sara gasped, but held her own. The energy was getting violent, and it was taking most of her strength to contain it. She looked away from Knives as he continued to rub her cheek.

"You have a lousy way of showing it," she told him.

Knives moved back and laughed slightly. He rubbed the back of his head. "Yea… I am a louse, aren't I… But I never meant for this to happen to you." He moved in close again.

"This is where we will part company, my dear Officer Sara Montgomery," he said quietly to her ear. "But in parting, I leave you with a gift – a way to get out of this."

He touched her forehead with his finger. Instantly her mind filled with coordinates and locations of all the Angel Arm Cannons that had sent their beams at her. She blinked and looked at him with confusion.

"I do love you Sara," he said. "Not like that fake love Montre and Horloge think they have for me… The very first I saw you…" He trailed off. He then smiled. "Lexington is a very lucky Plant," he finished. He then kissed her.

They broke away from one another. Knives slowly drifted back towards the outer wall of energy.

"Remember my gift, moon child," he told her.

His wings touched the wall and began to burn. He had lowered his shielding around them and was allowing the massive flow of power to run over them. Below the ball, Vash could see the shadow of his brother start to incinerate.

"NO KNIVES! NO, THERE HAS TO BE ANOTHER WAY!" he shouted as Meryl ran over to consol him.

Knives raised his hand to his head as he took one last look at the angel before him.

"See ya!" he said, and pushed back full into the wall of energy.

A burning body tumbled out of the ball and smacked the ground in front of Harrisburg. Before he could do anything, it had shattered into ash.

A tear rolled down Sara's face. She shook her head – her job was not done. She concentrated on the locations Knives had given her.

"Lexington!" she called. "I need your help!"

"I'm here hon!" she heard him say. She smiled.

"I have the coordinates of the cannons," she told him. "I want to send the power back to them."

There was a moment that she heard nothing. "I understand," she finally heard from him. "Please note that it is dangerous – You will have to be the catalyst for over twenty rounds outbound, and you need to send more than you received if you intend on disabling the guns."

"I… I understand," she said.

"I understand as well," the deep throated rumble of Harrisburg was heard.

"Me too," came a reply from Dallas. "Uh… but how do we get it up there?" he added.

"You two, over here," Vash ordered as he picked up his brother's gun. He held it up over his head, as well as his silver piece. He looked down at Meryl and smiled.

"Hey little lady," he said, "better step back a bit – this is man's work!"

Meryl turned beet red. "YOU BRISTLE-HEADED BABOON!" she shouted. "OF ALL THE CHAUVANISTIC EGO-MINDED MORONIC…"

She stopped when Vash kissed her on the cheek.

"This is going to be dangerous, Meryl," he quietly added. "Please…"

She quieted down and looked at him with skeptical eyes.

"Okay mister," she resigned, "but if you get yourself killed, I'll murder you!"

He grinned at the joke then resumed his serious expression.

"Dallas, Ashton, get over here!" he commanded as he transformed the two guns into the twin Angel Arms. "Place your hands on the cannons," he ordered to the two men.

As they did, they meshed into the feathers just as Rem had earlier.

"Okay," Vash told them, "let's give her what we can!"

The power began to build up at the muzzles. Kinza watched over it all with his scanning rod.

"Don't let it just roll over, guys!" he warned. "Last thing we need is your power just bouncing around town!"

Vash concentrated and sent a thin beam of energy into Sara's ball.

"That's it," Kinza said. "Guide it along!"

The power continued to grow as Vash started to send it along into the massed energy. Sara brought her own energy up and threw her arms wide as she accepted the new flow from The Source. She then imagined the multiple targets in her mind. She amplified the power she had received and locked on those who had sent it.

She then pulled the trigger.

As if the smooth ball had suddenly grown spikes, it burst away from her, sending a rain of energy back from where they had come. But she felt something odd.

The energy she was sending was being drawn too much. She felt herself being sucked into the maelstrom she had sent forth. She struggled to hold her ground as the gentle breeze had become a vicious ripping vortex. Her mind reeled as she concentrated on staying alive.

Darkness fell upon her as she could hear Lexington's voice calling to her.

oOo

_**To be continued…**_

Moon Shadow ©1971 Cat Stevens  
Captain Strom, Commander Button, North, Elb Kinza, UNS Forrestal, and GENUINE DOORKNOB ©2003 DMS – Used with permission  
All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow  
Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0311.27


	23. Far Ago and Long Away

**Chapter Twenty**

TRIGUN:**  
****MOON CHILD**

**Far Ago and Long Away****  
****(I Think it's Gonna be a Long, Long Time)**

**By R. A. Stott**

"How is my little Sara this morning?"

Sunlight was streaming in a bedside window. She looked down to see metal bars on either side of her. A hospital bed?

"Where…" she asked. There was a man looking shocked at her.

"Doctor!" he yelped. "Doctor, she's talking!"

Sara smiled at the man, the groggy haze lifting slightly. "Orange juice," she said as another man and a woman entered the room.

"OJ? Why of course my dear," the new man said as he flashed a light in her eyes and checked her temperature. The woman left momentarily and returned with a glass of the orange fluid and a straw. She sipped it.

"Bitter, but good," she said. The man laughed.

"Well, Mr. Montgomery, I would say your daughter is on the road to recovery," the man with the light pen said. "What she's been through, I'm amazed just how well she came through it."

"Thank you Dr. Archimedes," the man said shaking the other's hand. Sara blinked.

"D-daddy?" she asked.

Mike Montgomery looked down on the girl in the bed and smiled. She raised her arms to reach for him.

Then she saw how small they were.

"What?" she asked aloud. She looked at the tiny hands - her tiny legs - her tiny body. "I'm a little girl again!" She looked up at her father. "Where are we?" she asked.

"A Federation hospital outside a town called Tulip," he replied taking her hand. "You were brought here soon after you saved the town of China Grove nearly a year ago."

Sara sat up in bed. "A YEAR!?" she squeaked in her much younger voice - The sound of it made her clutch her mouth with her hands.

"Actually, a year and two months," a familiar voice said from the doorway.

Vash and Meryl entered the room and smiled. "Look who's awake! How are you doing?" they asked the small officer.

She looked at her tiny hand. "Reduced," she replied. "What happened to me?"

Vash rubbed his head. "From what Lexington was able to tell us after you fell on Dallas and Harrisburg, all that penned up infant energy that you had was pulled out of you. Your system is recovering it by returning you to your childhood it would seem."

"I wish I had that option," Meryl added with a laugh. It was then that Sara noticed that Meryl was carrying a large baby – possibly a year old from the size she reckoned.

"You had a child?" Sara gasped. Then she felt the energy coming from it and looked at Vash.

"Yes and no," he said while scratching the back of his head and turning a goofy red in the face. "We found him in my cabin when I went back to collect some stuff."

Sara looked at him with a reserve normally not found in a child's face. "You found him in your cabin?"

Meryl nodded. "Oh yes… and we know who it is too."

Vash smirked. "I always told Rem that I'd take care of Knives, but I never imagined it would be this way."

She gave a half smile at the thought of bringing up Knives. Then a thought struck her. "If he's a Plant-Human mix, why is he taking so long to grow?"

Meryl looked at her a bit puzzled. "Excuse me?"

Vash laughed out loud – the hyena type of laugh that cause Meryl to wince and the baby to look at him with a disturbed eye. "That is true," he cackled. "By this time when I was his current age, Knives and I were about your size now Sara!"

Meryl sighed. "You Plants are a weird lot, you know that?" she murmured.

"Well when you first saw me, I was only eight months old," Sara reminded her. She looked at her hands. "Being a child again is very strange though…"

Meryl smiled. "It was amazing – you've grown a bit since the last we saw you. When you fell out of that fireball you were in, you landed in the hands of Dallas and Harrisburg as this small child with beautiful golden hair all over."

"It was a bit of a juggling act," Vash remembered, "since they still had one arm in each of my cannons. It took Meryl and Millie to get them untangled."

Sara looked to her side. A mirror on the wall showed her the young face that was now hers, and the short hair that she now wore. She touched her bangs.

"The hospital had to cut it off dear," her father said.

She smiled. "Its okay – I can always grow it back." She took his hand that held hers. "How are you here?"

He smiled and sat beside her on the bed. "You've missed out on a great deal, honey. Captain North is right – you're probably going to need to be completely debriefed."

"The Federation began rescue and recovery of those on the moon bases as soon as the situation was considered safe," Vash told her. "They also brought along new technology for the Plants."

"New technology?" she asked. She watched Vash look out the door and wave to someone. Mike grinned as he saw what he was doing.

"Yes dear," he told his daughter, "new technology that allows a Plant to regenerate much quicker so they don't have to go through ten years of cycle work in a Containment Vessel."

She looked confused until she saw who was standing at the doorway.

"MOMMY!" she squealed as Cindy entered the room.

The afternoon was spent in great conversation as Sara asked about the year that had past. Harrisburg was now the Colonel in charge of the new recruits in the Space Marines base at New July City. Brandywine and Bryant had moved back to help in the rebuilding of Promontory Falls. Their marriage was the climax to the first Ball to be held in the new town hall.

"Where is Millie?" Sara asked. She noticed that Meryl looked away when she brought it up. "Is she… she's okay, isn't she?"

Meryl wiped some tears away as she smiled. "No, no, she's fine," she said as Vash rubbed her shoulder.

--------------------------------------

"Knock - knock!" Vash had yelled into the chapel. "Visitors! Anyone home?"

"Broom-head!" Wolfwood called from the front pew. N'ya was sitting on the pulpit as if he had been giving the morning sermon. His ears perked up when he heard something that wasn't the Legendary Gunslinger.

"My gosh, it looks just like the church in Oklahoma," Millie exclaimed. "Oops! But not in here!" she added as she peeked inside.

Wolfwood sat in disbelief. "H-honey?" he asked the vision that had just stepped through the door.

"NICHOLAS!" she cried as she ran up the aisle into his arms spinning him about.

"Wow! Look at the inside of this place!" Meryl said as she too entered the church. "Is it me or…"

"…Is it bigger inside than outside?" Vash finished for her. "Yup… still haven't figured it out yet."

"It's not for you to figure it out, Vash the Stampede," N'ya said. "It is good to see you again, Miss Meryl," he added as he rubbed her legs.

"HONEY!" Wolfwood gasped as he tried to catch his breath. "Honey, are you all right? Why are you here? I mean… are you…"

Millie giggled. "No silly! This was all Mr. Vash's idea!"

Wolfwood looked over at his friend. "Really…" he said. "You can bring humans here too?"

Vash tapped his nose with his finger. "Why not? After all, I am partly human."

Wolfwood grinned and looked at his wife. "Not that I'm not glad to see you, but why did you come here of all places? Aren't you two supposed to be busy with the insurance company?"

Meryl grunted. "Bernardelli is out of business."

Wolfwood's eye looked shocked at her. "Out of business?"

Vash shrugged. "They just couldn't withstand all the claims after the battles settled. They were so involved thinking I was at fault, that when they claimed I was and the courts said I wasn't, they just filed for bankruptcy."

"Serves old man Thompson right too," Meryl added with a growl.

Wolfwood looked at her confused. "Mr. Thompson? Millie's father? Why?"

Millie looked at the floor. "Daddy fired me then disowned me," she said quietly.

Wolfwood took her by the hand and sat her down on one of the pews. "Aw, no, honey! What for?"

Millie held her breath, the words catching in her throat. Meryl spoke for her with more force than she would have.

"Damn idiot found out that she had a child out of wedlock, then that she had married a renowned gunslinger," she said with a snarl. "Heck, half the men and many of the women on that planet could be counted as gunslingers!"

"That is just wrong!" Wolfwood said with anger in his tone.

Vash nodded in agreement then saw a pad of paper on the pew that Wolfwood had been on when they first entered the church. A rough draft for a sermon was on it.

"You have regular services?" he asked Wolfwood as he pointed at the papers.

Wolfwood looked back, the out of context question catching him off guard. "Sure," he said. "This place has become a regular visiting place for the Plantoids now that they're free of those Plant Containment Vessels. Spreading the word seems to have become very popular to them."

Vash gestured for him to step aside with him. N'ya followed.

"Look, you're busy here," he told him. "She's been depressed ever since what her father did to her."

Wolfwood glanced back at her. "So you thought you'd bring her here to cheer her up?" he whispered.

Vash scratched the back of his head. "That," he said with a coy mischief look on his face, "and to ask if you'd like to have someone here to help you out…"

Wolfwood stared at the Typhoon. "Uh, Vash, aren't you forgetting something?"

Vash blinked. "Umm… no, what?"

The pastor gritted his teeth. "I'm dead, remember?"

"No you're not," N'ya stated. "The Source has granted you a new body and life here."

Wolfwood gave the cat a snap glance. "I don't age!"

"Neither would she," the Kuroneko added as he licked his paw.

"Ea?" Wolfwood said with a confused look on his face.

"The truth is the truth, son," N'ya said. "You're in The Source, remember? Time means nothing here. Vash brought her here as a living person, not a dream phantom. She won't age as long as she's here, unless you and she want too that is."

"The powers of The Source is time itself," Vash said. "Rem told me that. And since you took over for her, you now live within The Source. Why do it by yourself, especially since she wants to be here with you?"

Wolfwood stood and stared, unable to speak. He was about to say something finally, but the sound of the church's organ interrupted him. A smooth melodic tune was playing. He looked over at the keyboard to see Millie sitting on the bench tinkering with the keys. His mind flashed back to the church on his homestead where she played the piano on Sunday mornings for his sermons. She had a natural playing talent. He smiled.

"She's better at that than you are," the cat noted.

"A rock is better than I am on that thing," Wolfwood admitted out of the side of his mouth.

"She has no other place to be," Vash stated quietly. "Why not here and let her be happy?"

Wolfwood glanced over his shoulder at Vash and smiled. "You are a conniver, aren't you?"

Vash smirked and scratched his nose. "Love and Peace baby!" he grinned.

Wolfwood laughed and walked over to his wife. Meryl stepped up to Vash and watched them.

"Do you think he'll do it?" she asked him

Vash watched and placed his arm around Meryl's shoulder. "He'll do the right thing, I'm sure of it."

Millie was switching between a few hymns and church standards on the keys when she then started playing an odd song that made Wolfwood smile.

_**And I think it's going to be a long, long time**__**  
**__**Till touch down brings me round again to find**__**  
**__**I'm not the man they think I am at home**__**  
**__**Oh no, no, no**__**  
**__**I'm a Rocket Man**__**  
**__**Rocket Man – Burning out his fuse up here alone…**_

Wolfwood laughed. "You used to make the kids crazy when you'd play that," he said to her.

Millie giggled. "At least I never did it during your sermons," she smiled.

"Oh?" he said sitting beside her on the bench. "I distinctly remembering one Sunday when you were being mischievous and you were playing that in the background of one of my sermons."

She blinked. "Oh yes!" she laughed. "When I wanted to tell you that I was going to have… Jerry…" She sat back on the bench and lowered her head as the memory of her lost son flowed over her. "I forgot…"

"Eternity…" he said. "I could stand eternity with you."

Millie clutched her hands together.

Wolfwood reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Will you stay with me?" he asked.

Meryl held her breath.

Millie looked up at him, her blue eyes wet with tears. "It will be Oklahoma all over again, right?"

Wolfwood smiled and cocked his head. "Almost – fewer of the bad parts, more of the good."

She flung herself across his shoulder, her long golden brown hair covering both of their faces.

Sara sat in astonishment. "So, she's still in The Source with Nicholas?"

Vash sat back. "More than that it would seem," he said. "Seems her mind is more imaginative than Wolfwood's. The whole area around the church is now Oklahoma back in the late 1890's on Earth. It's an incredible place to visit."

"And that's not the half of it," Meryl said as she wiped some tears away. "She expecting again."

Sara gawked. "Again? What is that, thirteen?"

Vash shook his head. "It will be interesting to see just how The Source takes it."

"What about Lexington?" Sara asked. "Is he out of his Micro-Plant yet?"

Vash looked at Meryl with a little puzzlement to his face. "I'm not sure," he said. "I had heard he was released with the new technology and that he and Dallas rebuilt the Tunnel Steamer. After that, Dallas told me that he simply vanished."

Sara pondered this. "Why would he disappear like that?" she wondered. "Well, I'm sure that Miami is keeping Dallas busy anyway… what?"

She saw a look of shock roll over Meryl's face as she said those words.

"Oh my god, you don't know?" Meryl said with a quiver to her voice. The infant twisted in her arms and she hushed it. She looked up at the young eyes that were staring at her, pleading her to finish. "Sara, dear… Miami died that morning you saved China Grove…"

Sara looked between Vash and Meryl. The gunslinger had turned and faced the window, a grim look on his face. She gasped for air. Cindy leaned over and rubbed her back to calm her.

"You… saw…" she started to say then turned away. "Oh god, I'm sorry… I shouldn't have…"

"She died saving others," Vash said. "She broke the will of the last of the Gung-Ho Guns. She became that elusive mayfly of peace and love I search for. She rose from her human form and rejoined The Source… so really, she lives on still. Dallas understands it. It is why he continues to this day. Life goes on."

Sara clutched her mother's hand. She smiled and nodded.

Something on Meryl beeped and she looked at a watch on her wrist. "Oh my god, is that the time? We're going to be late!"

Vash started to look around in a panic. "Where's the phone? Where's the phone?" he yelped.

Meryl had dug a small cell phone out of a pouch she was carrying and started to punch buttons. "We only stopped by to see how you were doing – we need to get over to the courthouse…"

She stopped. She looked over at Sara and gritted her teeth.

"Oh god, you don't know about this either, do you?" she asked.

Sara blinked.

The doctors and nurses in the nearby lobby thought an explosion had just struck. "GET ME OUT OF THIS HOSPITAL NOW!" bellowed down the hallway.

Kinza looked about the courtroom. "What's the delay?" he asked Boston.

"I was told that someone special is coming to the court, but I wasn't told who," he said.

"ALL RISE!" the bailiff called out.

From one side of the room the seven Plantoid Judges entered. From the opposite side seven men and women in Federation dress uniforms came in. Each group took seats at an elongated bench.

The doors to the courtroom opened just as the bailiff began.

"This court is in session! This is a grand courts marshal – The Federation Vs Elb Kinza Farley on the charges of aiding and abetting a felon, wrongfully disclosing information of future developments of the planet Deneb One to a local, namely said felon, and breaking the rules under Article Twelve Paragraph One of the United Nations Articles of Federation on contact with outside worlds. The right honorable Commodore Watanabe presiding for the Federation, and the right honorable Judge Coal for the Jurisdiction of Deneb One!"

The Commodore tapped on a bell twelve times.

"Be seated!" the Bailiff said.

Vash looked about and saw his mother waving to him. He waved back and started for the seats she had waiting for them.

"Mr. Vash," the Commodore announced, "are we holding you up?"

"Um, ah, no sir, sorry sir," he said turning beet red. He then stood tall and slapped his shoes together in a loud clicking of heels. "But I do have an announcement!"

The Commodore looked at him as if he had just gone mad. "A what?" he asked.

"Vash, what are you doing?" Meryl murmured as she slinked under his theatrics to her seat.

"PRESENTING, in her first coming out since waking up from her coma this morning, the lady who saved us all a year ago, may I present Officer Sara Montgomery of the SEEDS Security Force!"

Mike Montgomery and his wife stepped into the courtroom carrying Sara as the gathered hushed at the sight of the small girl in his arms.

"What foolishness is this?" the Commodore barked.

"None that I can see, Shin," Captain North said beside him, "or don't you recognize your chief of security?"

"Didn't you read my reports on the results of her service in this circumstance?" Captain Strom asked from the Commodore's other side. "She's part Plantoid remember."

The Commodore nodded. "Ah yes, I nearly forgot," he said.

"Father, please put me down," Sara asked.

"Sara, honey," he said to her ear, "you haven't walked in over a year…"

She looked up at him. "Trust me father, I may not have to walk…"

"Uh oh," a woman Captain beside Strom whispered, "looks like Watanabe is about to get an earful!"

"She can do it too," Strom whispered back.

Sara was placed on her feet by her father. She felt her knees start to release themselves from under her own weight. But before she could fall, she snatched herself up with her own energy and floated down the aisle to Kinza's side.

"What are you doing down there, little one?" he asked. "The last time I saw you, I looked at your chin!"

"Mr. Kinza, what are they doing to you?" she asked as she reached over the banister and hugged him.

The Commodore slammed a gavel on the bench. "The visitor will not touch the accused!" he barked. He then noticed North stand up and pick up his chair. "Where do you think you're going?" he yelled at him.

North moved his chair a few feet over towards the Plant Judges. "Just over here," he said as he sat down again. "I didn't want to be in the middle of a hurricane."

The Commodore heard the chairs on his other side slide a bit. When he looked back at North, he was smirking and nodding to look ahead of himself. He did.

"PRAY TELL ME JUST WHAT BRAIN-CELL IT WAS THAT MADE YOU PUT THIS FINE OFFICER UNDER COURTS-MARSHAL!?" Sara screamed in his face as she floated before him.

"Young lady, I don't care if you're the reincarnation of Peter Pan! You will NOT address me in such a manner in MY COURT!" the Commodore announced.

North tapped him on the shoulder. "Shin," he said into his ear, "I suggest that we handle this with care? This is after all this planet's saving angel, so to say. If you do something stupid here, the treaty might be lost, and we'd wind up with a courtroom full of angry people, some of whom can transfer energy at will."

"Sara, I understand your emotions here," Strom told her. "Mr. Kinza is a good friend of mine. He is responsible for many heroic deeds and services. He has been decorated for his valor and cunning during the Second Moon incident – even the people of this planet honored him with a celebration for his good work for them. Your mother would not be alive today if not for his courage to stay in the front lines as all that flotsam headed for the SEEDS ships on the Fifth Moon."

"I was there!" she snapped. "That's why I don't understand…"

"Sara," North said, "You were trained as an officer, right?"

"Of course," she replied.

"And you know the circumstances of what would happen if you broke any of the rules you needed to follow, right?"

Sara looked at the man she knew as Pastor North in shock. "He… he broke what rules?"

North sighed as he looked down on his friend behind the defendant's desk. "He told Knives of what the Federation was planning for this world. To his credit, it actually limited the final strike against it, it would seem… But in the process, he broke the rule of silence that we all pledge an oath over. Some call it our Prime Directive, but it's more of a non-spoiler clause in our mission."

"And he admitted it," the man in the middle said, getting a sour reaction from the woman next to Strom of which he noticed. "I understand your emotions to this, Captain Edwards," he told her, "being his sponsoring Commander, but he did admit it."

She only looked at Kinza and sighed. He looked away.

"Sara, please," North said, taking her hand, "this is painful for all of us. We are about to pronounce judgment. May we?"

She felt a hand touch her shoulder. She looked back to see her mother behind her. She fell into her arms crying as she escorted her to her seat.

A murmur rustled through the courtroom. Two strikes of the gavel resumed the proceedings.

"Madam Chief Justice," the Commodore stated, "we recognize your jurisdiction in this affair – if you please…"

The chief justice bowed to the Commodore and handed a piece of paper to a feline-looking Federation Officer who looked up at North with a look of worry on her face. He nodded to her. She then looked back over at Kinza who also nodded towards her and smiled. She cleared her throat and opened the note to read it aloud.

"It is the verdict of this court," she started in a slight rasp, "that the accused, Elb Kinza Farley of the United Nations Starship Forrestal, is found… not guilty of all charges brought upon him."

The court erupted in cheers and cries of congratulations from those gathered. The Commodore slammed the gavel several times to restore order.

"Elb Kinza," the Commodore noted, "you have been found not guilty on any local charges. But as you know, the jurisdiction of the Federation is anywhere a Starship is present. Therefore… this is our verdict of this courts marshal." He nodded towards North who removed a paper from his uniform. He looked at it and handed it down to the woman below.

"This is the ugly one, Shadsie," he told her in a whisper. Her tail cracked like a whip with those words.

She held her breath as she turned towards Kinza and slowly opened the note. She didn't hold anything back – she gasped and looked up at him with welling tears in her eyes.

She mouthed "I'm sorry," to him.

"Read the verdict, Lieutenant," the Commodore ordered.

She cleared her throat again and wiped a tear. "It… is the verdict of this court of your peers, fellow officers of the United Nations World Federation, that all charges save one are summarily dropped against Elb Kinza Farley… and are henceforth noted as not guilty… On the charge of breaking the rules under Article Twelve Paragraph One of the United Nations Articles of Federation on contact with outside worlds, Elb Kinza Farley is found… guilty as charged…" She broke down at this point as an audible gasp ran through the courtroom.

"Lieutenant!" the Commodore barked, "do I have to relieve you of duty?"

"Only if you want a mutiny on your bench," both North and Strom snarled into his ears. He also had the woman glaring up at him, claws protruding from her fingers tearing at the paper.

North reached over the bench and whispered into her ear. She nodded and re-composed herself.

"It's okay Shadsie," she heard as she looked back at Kinza. "Let's have it."

She smiled a weak smile. "It is by judgment of this courts marshal that the defendant shall be taken from this place to a holding cell, his… his PERMIT to be IN THIS DEMENSION REVOKED!?" She glared up at the Commodore. "Upon which, Elb Kinza Farley shall be returned to his home universe…"

"NO!" a voice rang through the courthouse. "THAT IS A DEATH SENTENCE! YOU'LL KILL HIM IF YOU DO!"

No one in the courtroom had spoken those words. But Vash knew that voice. So did Kinza.

Vash looked down at the boy in Meryl's lap. A pacifier in the child's mouth made him look like a child, but he knew who had said it.

"Knives… you did consider him a friend, didn't you?" he told the boy.

The child looked up at Vash and burped.

"I'd consider that a yes," Meryl said.

The Commodore slammed his gavel. "I will NOT tolerate another outburst!" he bellowed. "This court is not without mercy!"

Kinza and Shadsie looked up at him, as did Sara.

The Commodore stood up. "Mr. Kinza has served us and this planet with distinction and honor, we do not deny that. We are giving him another option, as we understand his unique situation."

Kinza sat back in his chair. "And that is your honor?"

The chief justice on the Plants side stood up. "We offer you asylum here on Deneb One," she offered.

The Commodore cleared his throat. "We offer that you may stay with us, but demoted to the rank of Ensign and a removal of your privileges for two solar years."

Shadsie could nearly tear the old man apart with that choice. But Kinza stood up and stopped her.

"Gracious," he said. "I thank you for the choices, your honors, but I choose to take my punishment."

The court rumbled. Kinza looked back and held his hand up to hush those in the audience.

"I have my reason, folks," he said. "I thank you for your concerns, but it will probably be for the best for me."

Strom tapped the Commodore on the arm to get his attention. He whispered in his ear. The Commodore looked down at him and then briefly conferred with the others.

"Very well then," he said as he tapped the gavel again. "I have been informed that Elb Kinza is not a flight risk," he said to the crowd. "We will amend our decision and release him on his own recognizance. He is to report to the Starship Exeter at O-Nine Thirty Hours on the Ninth of this month for deportation. So be the ruling of this court." He struck the gavel once more. "This meeting is adjourned."

"ALL RISE!" the bailiff barked as the judges left the courtroom.

Vash and Meryl moved closer to their friend. Kinza was rubbing his arm as he looked up at them and smiled.

"Nice outburst," he said to the child in Meryl's arms.

"Sorry," she apologized.

"Five days," Vash noted to the date given by the Commodore. "Are you going to appeal?"

Kinza laughed. "No. I want to go back. I have no further reasons to stay in this dimension."

Vash noticed that he was still rubbing his arms. "The disease… it's no longer in check, is it?"

Kinza looked at his paws. "No… Whatever Horloge did to accelerate the Slyznics finished off whatever there was in this dimension that kept it in check." He sighed. "Who knows… maybe my own universe will keep it in check now… I'll find out when I get there, right?"

A small hand touched the paw. Kinza looked down on the little girl with the unmistakable green eyes looking up at him.

"Hey, Sara," he said quietly to her. "I'm glad to see you awake. I would have hated to have to leave without seeing those beautiful green eyes again."

"This is so wrong," she said with tears streaming down her face. "I feel so powerless… Why would they press these charges? Why?"

Kinza reached down and lifted her to his knee. "They didn't," he said. "I pressed them. I demanded them."

Sara looked at him as if he were mad. "Why?" she asked.

"Honor, commitment, moral codes, you name it," he explained to her. "Tomassamassa's are noted for these, as well as being the galaxy's best navigators."

"Was he right?" she asked of the phantom voice. "Will you die?"

Kinza shrugged. "I don't know… I don't plan on it. And I'm sure that my old boss over there will be ready to have me back… I was only a loaner here anyway, you know. My lease was up – Time to trade me in on the newest model!" He winked at her.

Sara fell into his chest and held him tight.

"Mr. Kinza," Cindy said as her daughter clung to him, "I am forever grateful to you." She took his free paw and held it warmly in her hand.

"An honor, ma'am," he replied.

She smiled. "I wish you'd reconsider the Chief Justice's verdict."

He looked up at the now empty bench. "What? And reconvene this court? No thank you!" He felt a tap on his shoulder and looked back at the hand being offered him.

"Mr. Kinza," Boston said. "This has been the most interesting cases I've ever defended."

Kinza smirked as Sara looked up at the lawyer behind them from her position on the Tomassamassa's furry lap. "You're a good man, Boston. Sorry to bring you in on a loosing cause."

"Not at all," Boston laughed. "After all, we did manage to clear you of all but one of the charges. 'Shame it was the ugly charge…"

"If I ever need another lawyer, I know who I want," Kinza told him. "I may have to bring you kicking and screaming to my universe, but I know who I'd want!"

The doors to the courtroom burst open. "Aw no honey!" Brandywine yelled at the sheriff she was dragging in. "We're too late!"

"Guilty as charged!" Kinza laughed. "Let's party!"

The afternoon was spent gathered in and around the courthouse in chatting and laughter, which all seemed a bit surreal to Sara. But everyone seemed happy, even though the reason they were all there wasn't. But the person that had brought them all together was happy with the outcome, so…

It still seemed too surreal to her. She walked out to the steps leading up to the courthouse now that she finally found her feet again. She looked around at all the new construction. The town of Tulip could be seen a few blocks away. Surrounding it was many modern buildings either freshly finished or nearing completion. And to her left was a spaceport where two massive starships sat.

"Things sure have changed," she told herself. "Who would have thought just a year ago this was the frontier…"

"Hey green eyes," she heard. "Long time no see…"

She looked down at the base of the steps and saw a boy looking up at her. He smiled and tossed a ball at her. She caught it.

She looked back at him, taking a few steps down towards him. There was something about his face that caught her attention.

"Do I know you?" she asked.

The boy laughed. "I'd offer you a coffee, but at your current age, well, let's just say that your parents wouldn't be able to handle you."

Sara stopped, her eyes wide and shocked. She then heard a familiar sneezing sound of an air break. She looked to her right and saw that hiding just out of sight was the Tunnel Steamer.

"Lex?" she asked the boy.

He grinned.

"LEXINGTON!" she cried as she ran down to him and grabbed him spinning him about. The people walking by were a bit shocked seeing a little girl kissing a little boy. Most of the older ladies thought it was cute… save one, who complained to a policeman.

Captain North stood outside the courthouse and watched the pair below and waved at the policeman not to bother them. Meryl and Vash stood behind him with perplexed expressions on their faces.

"I take it she knows that boy," Meryl said as she watched the two below.

"You know him as well," North said with a grin as he waved to Dallas as he stepped around the corner. The large Plantoid had a small black cat on his shoulder.

Meryl's mouth dropped as she put two and two together. "That's Lexington?"

"He backtracked himself?" Vash asked. Meryl looked up at him with a puzzled look.

"They call it refreshing now," North noted. "You can always refresh a battery if you know how to do it."

"Ah, I see," the Typhoon said.

Meryl looked back and forth between the two men. "You're not a battery!" she barked.

North held up his hand. "That's not what I meant," he told her.

"A Plantoid can restore themselves to any point they want when in a regen unit," Vash explained. "But to make it permanent, he would have had to discharge himself to nearly zero power."

North nodded. "He was determined, that was for sure. He also gave up quite a bit to do it."

Vash grunted. "I guess… That size body is just past the time a Plantoid would have what would be left of his infant energy, and just before he'd gain his adult powers, isn't it?"

Meryl noticed North's nod yes. "So?" she asked. "Is that a problem?"

"It means that whatever strengths he had in his previous adult form are wiped clean," Vash told her. "He may not be the same when he grows up again."

"The same can be said for Sara," North added. "But now they have each other to grow with."

_**The Moon Child and the Earth Child**__**  
**__**Danced in the shadow of the sun**__**  
**__**A waltz of eternity and symmetry**__**  
**__**Locked in their embrace**__**  
**__**They kiss and bring on the night**__**  
**__**Together they traveled**__**  
**__**Their love never matched**__**  
**__**Their lives forever entangled**__**  
**__**They twirl and spin throughout the universe**_

Meryl and Vash blinked at Dallas.

"Poetry?" Vash asked him. "I'd never imagined you writing poetry."

He smirked as he continued into the courthouse. "I didn't… Miami told me that once."

The two children were now holding each other close, Sara clutching Lexington with her head on his chest while he stroked her hair and hummed to her.

"_I'm being followed by a Moon Shadow_," he whispered to her. "_Moon Shadow, Moon Shadow…_"

She opened her eyes and peeked up the steps at the infant in Meryl's arms. The baby was staring at her.

It then giggled.

She smiled and held Lexington closer.

--------------------------------------

_**Ten Years Later…**_

The man looked at the memo that had been handed to him by the Federation courier. He read it and placed it on the table before him. He turned away from the board members that were gathered and wiped his face. He then stood up and adjusted his business suit, and turned back to the people before him.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he started with a slight crack in his voice, "I have been given the sad news that our friend Kinza Farley died this morning of his illness. I would like to have a moment of silence if we could."

"I'll second that Mr. Saverem," the woman beside him said quietly.

He stood like a statue before the members, his head down, his eyes glued to the PADD that brought him the news.

"My only friend," he said to himself.

Meryl sipped her coffee as she wiped a tear from her face and placed the PADD she had been given down. "I wonder how Knives took the news?" she wondered aloud.

Vash looked back at the large building he could see through the rear window of the kitchen. "It's not easy for him," he said. "I can feel that he's taking it hard."

Meryl shook her head. "That rock? He never showed many emotions. When he chose to go through rapid growth, I thought he was rushing things. I don't know…"

Vash shrugged. "He's doing better than the first time," he said.

She sighed. "I'd like to see Wolfwood and Millie's service… I'm sure they'll do something for Kinza…"

Vash smiled and rubbed her shoulders. "Anything for you Mrs. Saverem. The kids will love to see their aunt and uncle again."

"I'd like to come too," Knives' voice told them. Vash smirked.

"No problem, bro," he said to the walls. "I'll set things up. How's business?"

"Market's up - the profits are good – and this board meeting is boring… I need to take a personal day or two…"

Vash nearly laughed out loud. "Sounds it," he said. "Okay, I'll see what I can do."

"See you all tonight," Knives said as he signed off and closed his mental link.

They walked through the large home built on the outskirts of the Promontory Flats plains. Meryl stopped by the large fireplace. She looked up at the plaque hung over the mantle that bore the silver and black revolvers, and her full set of Derringers. Hung between the larger guns was the SEEDS pendant, which was catching the sunlight coming through the large porch windows that Vash now stood at. She joined him and admired the view. Trees now covered the surrounding hillsides as the vast stretch of the area was now dominated by fields of wheat. Meryl sipped her coffee as she took in the scene.

"Do you think that Kinza's offense brought this on?" she asked Vash.

He looked out over the fields and shook his head. "The coming of the rescue ships did this," he said. "But Kinza did tell Knives about the future plans for this world. He was probably responsible for our new Knives."

Meryl chuckled. "You told me once that Knives had wanted to make a paradise for his own people, right?"

Vash smirked. "You mean, is this his paradise? Could be… but he never expected humans to be part of if. Personally, I'm glad that they are. And I think he's come around to that thinking finally."

"All because of a chance meeting with an alien he wound up calling his only friend," Meryl said under her breath as she placed her arm around her husband and laid her head on his side.

--------------------------------------

"Ladies, are you ever going to come out of there?" the worker asked.

A readout on a portable monitor wrote in text "Why?"

He blew air. "Because you two are the last Plants on this whole planet that are still working! All the others have been mothballed and shut down! Don't you two want your freedom?"

He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around.

His eyes flew wide.

He started to have a nosebleed.

A greenquail ran across his feet and he fell to the ground.

"We're out, you happy?" the naked lady said to him, her long hair covering her chest and nearly touching her knees. The second woman had a pair of white wings on her back that melted over her body and became robes.

"Montre, please!" she said as she snapped a pair of sunglasses out of thin air, "this is a new civilized planet we're on now! Put some clothes on!"

Montre looked back at Horloge and smirked. "Earth was supposed to be civilized too, remember?" she said as her own wings folded neatly around her and became her clothes. She looked back at the worker and smiled. "Young man, which way to town?" she asked as she held out her hand to him.

"Which… way?" he gurgled.

She lifted him up as if he had been a piece of paper. "Of course," she said. "We need someone to show us around now that the world has changed so!"

"M-m-me?" he continued to babble.

"Huh," Horloge said. "Looks like we fried his tiny little mind."

Montre laughed and gave the man a kiss on the cheek.

The man fainted.

"Nice going," Horloge said as she removed a power conduit from the Plant and created a pair of orbs that swirled and attached themselves to the rod. She then pointed it at a rock beside the Containment Unit she had been in. It rolled aside and her car clanked out of a hole behind it. Parts were falling off the rusty heap.

"We're not going into town in that are we?" Montre asked as she lifted the man up.

Horloge looked over the wreck and tapped it with her new pike. The rust faded and the parts returned to where they had fallen off. She looked at the hole in the floorboard – it wasn't going away.

"Guess I'll have to get that fixed," she said.

"Maybe so," Montre noted, "but I think it will stick out anyway."

Horloge looked at where her sister was pointing. There was the man's vehicle – a sleek thin car without any wheels. She looked back at her cobbled together sport car then at the floating zephyr at the gate to the Plant Site. She tapped on her car again, returning it to the rusting hulk it had become.

"I wonder if that can become a rag top?" she pondered as she got in with Montre and the unconscious man. She looked back at him.

"You're taking him with us?" she asked.

Montre smiled. "He took care of us these last few years. I think he deserves some repayment, don't you think," she said coyly as she tied a red ribbon in her hair making her long ponytail once again.

"He'll never forget this night then," Horloge smiled then glanced back at the body. "If he ever wakes up that is…"

She spun the hover vehicle about and tore off into the back streets of Violet Town.

--------------------------------------

Sara watched the Starships from the hillside outside Juno. The second sun was just starting to drop beyond the horizon, and the Fifth Moon stared down on her as the breeze of night brushed her face. Lex would be home soon.

She looked at the PADD in her hand. She knew it would come. She was surprised at how long it took. The inevitability of time and what it does to you rolled over her.

She heard the crunching of the dried grass behind her as her husband sat down beside her. They both looked about sixteen or seventeen, but that had not stopped them from making it official at the Forgiveness Chapel. The double ceremony that married both Vash and Meryl finally and themselves had been the event of the year for the Plantoid community two years prior. The special best man brought in for the occasion had been Kinza. Weak and showing signs of the mange that the disease caused, he had stood happily in his dress uniform with their rings.

She showed Lexington the PADD. He nodded.

"I heard," he said. "It's all over the com-links datanews. The president has ordered all flags to half-staff for the next week."

Sara clutched the PADD. "I still think he should have never been put on trial," she said with a touch of bitterness. "I wish I could have seen him one more time." She leaned on his shoulder.

"Friends are always hard to loose," he said to the twilight. "Sometimes harder than family members…"

"He was family," she said.

Lexington kissed her forehead. "Yes he was," he told her.

They sat quietly watching the sun's last light fade.

"Mommy? Daddy? Can I watch the starships launch with you?" a boy asked behind them.

Lexington and Sara looked back at him. "Sure Joey… come on and watch," his father said. The boy sat beside his mother and watched the spaceport far in the valley. He leaned over into her lap. She held his hand.

"I want to fly in one of those someday," he said as one of the larger ship lifted from its pad site. "Ooh, which one is that one daddy?"

"Exeter, I think," he said. "Forrestal is due to land in about an hour."

"The ship that took him away," Sara said quietly as Exeter rotated for main engine firing.

Joey looked up at her in the dim light created by the ship. "Are you sad mommy?" he asked.

She looked down on him and smiled. "No," she said to the child.

Millie sat at the new piano that she had placed opposite the chapel's organ. She played a few keys as N'ya watched.

"Mr. Fuzzy," she quietly said.

"Yes," the cat replied.

She sighed. "Kinza… I'll miss him…" she said with a choke of tears. She lightly played a tune on the piano as the cat watched.

_**And I think it's gonna be a Long, Long Time**__**  
**__**Till touch down brings me round again to find**__**  
**__**I'm not the man they think I am at home**__**  
**__**Oh no, no, no**__**  
**__**I'm a Rocket Man**__**  
**__**Rocket Man, burning out his fuse up here alone…**_

Sound Life

oOo

Moon Shadow ©1971 Cat Stevens  
Rocket Man (I Think it's Going to Be a Long, Long Time) ©1972 Elton John/Bernie Taupin/Dick James Music  
Captain Strom, Captain Edwards, Captain North, Elb Kinza Farley, UNS Forrestal, UNS Exeter, and GENUINE DOORKNOB ©2003 DMS – Used with permission  
All characters from the Anime/Manga TRIGUN ©2003 Yasuhiro Nightow  
N'ya, Greenquail, and Shadsie (Shadowcat) ©2003 S. Nordwall - Used with permission  
Sara Montgomery and all characters created for MOON CHILD ©2003 DMS/The MOON CHILD Project

Edited 0311.28


End file.
